The Twin's Arc
by Akikaze Ryo - Rain55
Summary: The twin head to their father's hometown to build their own name as great farmers, just like how many of their ancestors had been. However, the glorious days of Echo Town has passed and now it is not big enough to be called a town. On the way of revitalizing the town, they bump into Allen and Neil. With their own pasts and stories, the four destinies cross and are altered forever.
1. Prologue

Hi People! This is a story I made with my friend a.k.a Reine Kreiss u/4977939/

Me? I'm Akikaze Ryo a.k.a Gwen Kreiss, the character on this story are based on us. They are our OCs.

Only for entertainment purposes, mind you

Summary :

Gwen and Reine Kreiss heads to their father's hometown to build their very own name as great farmers, just like how many of their family members had been. However, the glorious days of Echo Town has passed and now it is not even big enough to be called a town. The twins set out to revitalize the now-Echo Village and on the way, they bump into Allen and Neil. With their own pasts and stories, the four destinies cross and are altered forever...

* * *

**Prologue**

* * *

Reine

"Well, isn't this exciting?" I said as we rode rather slowly with our wagons.

I glanced at Gwen. She merely smiled, and I knew immediately she shared my excitement. Well, she had never been the type to speak up, so after almost twenty years of trial-and-error (plus nine months in womb, maybe?) I had learned how to decipher her expressions: smiles, frowns... you named it, I got it (it's amazing how much her expression could tell you, really).

Our parents gave us a farm of our own for our twentieth birthday present and we were going there to take it over now. It was located at Echo Village, our father's hometown. I remembered that he used to tell us stories about his amazing hometown, about how his farm had a champion jersey cow, how the villagers are very friendly, and how fun and exciting the festivals were. I really couldn't wait to see with my own eyes the wonder that he had mentioned over and over during our childhood.

Dad had told us that it was his family's land, but he moved out and his sisters couldn't care less about it as they moved to the city. So, no one had attended the farm for at least two decades, I wonder how it would look like.

"Don't worry, my old friend is still there. He's a damn good farmer, I'm sure you girls will learn a lot from him," Dad had told us then.

Suddenly, the wagon that we rode on stopped abruptly and the horse shrieked.

"Ouch, what the... What just happened?" I wondered as I pat my head that just hit the wagon's side. Gwen pulled my shirt as she pointed at the direction of the horse. Uh-oh, there was a person lying down in the middle of the road! (and he was accidentally stomped by our horse! Oops!)

"Shoot!" I shouted immediately as I rushed to his side. Gwen's attention was attracted by my voice and she ran as well.

"…ter…"

I moved my ear closer to his mouth.

"Water…"

I, together with Gwen, propped him up and gave him my bottle. He finished the fully-filled bottle in one gulp. Wow, this old man sure was thirsty.

He handed it back to me, "Thanks! I guess I was too tired after all." he said cheerfully. Then he noticed Gwen and became speechlessly staring at us. I blinked my eyes once, twice, then thrice, but he was stunned.

"Yes?" I asked him.

"Lyla?"

This old man knew Mom? Oh well, we did look like her pretty much as we inherited her pink hair (much to Gwen's chagrin). So I wouldn't be really surprised people mistook us as Mom's clones. Was he the guy Dad had mentioned before?

"Um, no." Gwen replied softly. "We're her daughters."

He paused for a moment as he studied us carefully. "How foolish I am! Of course you girls are Jack and Lyla's twins!"

"Yep," I assured him. "I'm Reine and she is Gwen."

He looked puzzled, as if processing the info I just gave him. Well, differentiating us could be rather tricky, because we were almost identical. There were two differences between us: our dexterity and the way we swept over our fringe. I was left-handed, so I swept my fringe to the left, when Gwen's was the other way around.

"Jack told me it's rather hard to distinguish you girls. I guess I know what he meant now." He continued, "but anyway, welcome to Echo Village, although you're not exactly there yet. Your dad had sent me a letter about your coming."

"He did?" Gwen asked.

"Yep! The villagers tried to clear up the farm a bit so the work would not be too hard and you can quickly start off." He asked, "Do you want to see the place now?"

"Yes, please!" we replied in unison.

"Okay! Let's go!" he exclaimed as we marched together to Echo Village.

The journey took only 15 minutes on foot (Well, there wasn't enough space on the wagon for three people and our luggages), I didn't realize that we were so close.

"Here we are, welcome to Echo Village!" the old man proudly said.

I looked around, amazed. This village... It's... It's exactly the opposite of what I imagined! I could see no one except us here and the village, the houses, the amenities, the road seems to be deserted (and there were dusty barrels and boxes everywhere!). Was it just me who expect too much or there was really something wrong with this village? I took a glance at Gwen. She had exactly the same disappointed look on her face.

"I haven't had proper introduction before, my name is Dunhill," he said, "Your father has told me all the details in his letter, so let me say it again, welcome to Echo Village and I will help you in whatever I can. Feel free to approach me if you have any enquiries or if you need any help."

We nodded at the same time and the old man, Dunhill, nodded back politely.

"You must be tired from the journey here right? Let's go to my house first, I will treat you to a meal and we will go to your farm after that" he added.

We nodded again in harmony. Dunhill chuckled; I guessed he was amused at our so-called 'Twin Synchronisation' when we did things together in a similar manner. Well, we were used to it. Many people had called us cute or cool or anything just because we were very similar to each other.

We followed Dunhill from behind. As we walked towards his house, the more I realized that there was something wrong with this village. There were many houses (they were very dusty and worn out though) but this village seemed… lifeless? I couldn't be sure what word fit this village exactly.

It was when we walked to Dunhill's house (I didn't know where) that I noticed another wagon with four people nearby: a plump boy, an equally-plump man (whom I presumed as the boy's father), a middle-aged woman as well as an elderly woman.

"I can't open an inn when nobody visits the village," the man said sorrowfully. "I'm sorry."

"We understand, Hossan. Good luck on the neighbouring village." The elderly lady replied as she patted his shoulder.

"We'll be back after we had enough money to reopen an inn here."

"Of course! This would only be a temporary good bye, then." The other woman said.

Then, the four of them headed away.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to let you see this on your first day." Dunhill said, "But yeah, that's roughly what's going on around."

Dunhill would not say anything again after finishing that sentence and I was too scared to ask (much less Gwen). He cooked three bowls of noodles for us. "Eat while it's warm," he said as he put the bowl in front of us. They looked tasty.

"Thanks," both of us said.

"How are your parents?"

"They are fine," Gwen replied, "Dad's still working on the farm, but now he hires some people to help out."

"How about your mother?"

"Well, she helps out in the farm sometimes, but Dad won't let her do a lot."

"He's always been like that to her." He mused, "Have they ever told you how they met?"

"Nope."

"Do you want to know?"

I grinned, "If you want to tell, we're all ears."

"Your dad was born here, in this village, and your family have been farmers for Goddess-knows-how-long. He was the only son, and everyone expected him to take over the farm later on. Then, your mother came here during summer when he was twenty-one and caught everyone's attention, including your dad's. She was seventeen that time." He continued, "They were already dating by the next spring."

"From what he told me, her parents' didn't object their relationship, but they were reluctant to let her stay in this village. So, your dad made a decision that shocked everyone: he moved to her village instead."

"That's sweet…"

"It is," he agreed. "But I guess blood can't be resisted. After they were married, he started a farm in his new village."

"Oh, so that's how it is!" we both said.

We talked a bit more after lunch before Dunhill led us to the farm, our farm. After five minutes of walking or so, we arrived at the farm he had been mentioning. We were appalled by its size: it's super huge! We took a quick look on the house, stable and barn, it seemed that they had cleaned it for us.

"How's it?"

"This is great! Thanks Dunhill!"

Dunhill took a watch from his pocket. "It's already six o'clock. I need to get back to work, you two can get your luggage in and rest for the day," he said.

"Thank you very much for all the help, Dunhill," I replied. Gwen smiled at Dunhill and nodded slightly, it was her way of saying thank you to others who wasn't too close to her.

"Oh, no problem at all! To tell you the truth, I am the one who should be thanking you two for coming to this village!" he joyfully replied, "It has been a long time since the last villagers move in to this village and more and more people have been leaving Echo Village instead. You have seen Hossan and his son, right? With him and his son leaving this village, we only have me, Hana, Emma, Neil, and both of you living in this village now."

S-six people in one village? That's very surprising... And pitiful...

"I will introduce you to them tomorrow. I really need to go now, see you guys tomorrow," he added while walking hurriedly back to his house.

Okay, this village was amazing in one way. I didn't know how a village could be called a 'village' with only six people living there. My head hurt thinking about it so I decided to forget about that 'trivial' thing and started to bring our luggage into the house.

"Gwen, can you help me a bit? Park the wagon beside the house and bring Kazuki to the stable. I'll bring the luggage in when you do that."

"Okay."

She took Kazuki's rein and brought him to the stable. Kazuki was supposedly our horse but for some reasons, he hated me. However, he's Gwen's favourite so it was expected for him to come along with us. Well, his feelings weren't reciprocal so I didn't mind.

It took me quite some time to move our entire luggage in and thankfully Gwen came to help out for the last bit. Here we are now, inside the house where we would start our farm life. Welcome farm life!

* * *

Gwen

"There, there, Kazuki, be a good boy okay?" I muttered to Kazuki as I patted his muzzle gently. Kazuki was very quiet. I believed he was very tired from the journey; he was usually very active (too active until he tried to kick Reine so many times). I decided to leave him alone to let him rest and helped Reine out with the luggage.

Well, the village was far from my expectation but overall I loved the peaceful feeling I got in this village. I didn't really ask anything about this village to Dunhill, though, since Reine had did that for both of us. Since childhood, I was always together with her. She was outgoing and she dared to speak her thoughts up (and indirectly mine). I was never annoyed or even bothered by this, in fact, sometimes I was glad because it saved me the trouble of asking myself, and thus throughout the years I had developed the ability to listen well to what others said.

After arranging our stuff to our satisfaction, we took a long, comfortable bath and talked about where to start. Reine would deal with all the purchases while I'd prepare the field for sowing. Well, it wasn't the most exciting part of farming, but I would rather do it than going round the village and buy things. Besides, Reine was better in choosing the seeds and everything (including the haggling if she had to), so I guessed I had to prepare the field.

"There's not many to buy, especially when the livestock trader isn't around!" she lamented, "Moreover, Dad never mentioned of this village being almost-abandoned and all! I gotta make him pay for this!"

"But we got a farm of our own, don't you think that's cool?"

"It is! But honestly I imagined something similar to our island!"

"Well, Mom said that Dad saved Leaf Valley from being turned into an amusement park," I reminded her, "maybe this is our own 'save the homeland'?"

Reine stared at me, speechless. I was so proud I could make her loss at words like the way she was now. After some moments, she grinned widely, "Yeah, you're right!"

We laughed at each other. This actually could motivate us to work in the farm more than we expected. At least we had a clear goal to achieve by working on this farm. It was much more better than having a mundane farm life without a purpose. Life is a challenge after all!

* * *

How is it?

I know it's quite boring at the beginning, but just continue reading and trust me, the subsequent chapters will be more interesting :D We'll try to update as often as possible.

R&R, thanks for reading!


	2. First Season

Hi again! Here goes the next chapter, which we hope you guys find more interesting than the prologue.

Anyway, if you guys noticed, we actually mashed up several titles from Harvest Moon series. We hope you guys find this enjoyable :)

DISCLAIMER: We do not own Harvest Moon.

* * *

**First Season**

* * *

Gwen

"Ughh..."

I could hear the sound of the rooster already. I was still very sleepy as we spent the whole night yesterday talking about how exciting our life here would be starting from today on. I didn't feel like waking up yet.

"Reine, wake up..." I muttered without moving from my position.

"Hmm... 5 more minutes..."

There was silence.

Knock! Knock!

"Gwen, someone's there, open the door..."

"How about you... instead?" I replied lazily.

In an unspoken agreement, both of us went to sleep again. I thought we had used up all of our energy and excitement last night.

Knock! Knock!

I rose from the bed, realising that someone needed to open that door for that certain someone from the other side. This was annoying, why would someone came to the farm so early in the morning? I pulled Reine's blanket. She could not sleep without her blanket so, as always, she woke up soon enough after I took her blanket. After that I rushed towards the door.

"Good morning, Gw... Reine?" he paused. Well, who did you expect, it was the old man Dunhill. Not like anyone else would come to our house anyway. But, wait, there were two other people besides him: the two women we saw yesterday.

"Gwen," I replied.

"Oops, sorry, you two look like each other so much that I can't differentiate both of you. As I promised, I will introduce you to the other villagers today."

"Wait, I will call Reine."

I went back inside the house to fetch Reine and I found her still sleeping on the bed.

"Wake up, Reine." I said as I nudged her. She rose slowly, eyes half closed.

"Yeah… Yeah..." she groaned.

"Dunhill said that he will introduce us to other villagers." I said to her.

Reine nodded slightly and washed her face, and then miraculously she looked as energetic as she usually did. "Okay!" she said.

We let the three people came into the house. "Sorry for barging in so early in the morning."

Yes, you'd better be, I said in my head.

"I'm Hana, I own the General Store." The older lady said, "If you need some seeds, recipes, or anything, come and take a look at my store."

Hana was the classic loving grandmother type, constantly smiling and so grandmotherly. She spoke softly but clearly, and she seemed to have this warm aura around her.

"I'm Emma!" the younger one continued, "I handle all the shipping around here, so make sure to ship a lot of stuff! You can find the shipping box outside my house, by the way!"

As for Emma, I couldn't really guess how old she was, but I could clearly see the trained muscles beneath her arms (maybe because she had to deal with the shipping and all) and well… the apple ornaments on her clothes, as well as her hairpin. She seemed to be a fun person to have around, that's for sure.

"Actually, we should introduce Neil to them," Emma said to Dunhill, "He's about their age, right? Or slightly older?"

"He should be twenty-three this year, yes," Dunhill agreed before turning to us, "Neil Forrester, the livestock trader. He's currently out of town, but he should be back soon enough."

"He's rather good-looking, frankly speaking!" Emma exclaimed, with an approving nod from Hana. "But he doesn't talk much..."

"Anyway," Dunhill took some bags of seeds, "This is for you… to help you start off."

Wow, that should save us a trip to the General Store, as well as our meagre money. I accepted the seeds and muttered a thanks before Emma explained how the shipping works around here.

After the three of them left, Reine and I decided to immediately start working as there was so much to be done since this is our first day. We were extremely exhausted after we finished planting the seeds, "Thank God we're not doing this alone!" Reine exclaimed as we lied on the grass field. "How could Dad prepare the field all by himself?!"

"Well, you should ask Dad for that."

"But this farm is sure quiet… without any animals here besides Kazuki."

"Yeah…"

It had been several days since we came here and we somehow got used to the quietness of this place. It was rather calming, actually. We decided to take turns farming and foraging, and today would be my turn to take care of the crops. Reine had woken up earlier to go to the forest, but she had cooked me some miso soup for breakfast.

Moooo….

I put down my chopsticks and headed outside the house. There was a cow walking towards me. A cow? I swept my hand across its body, she had a nice, smooth spotted skin.

Moo 3

Okay, she liked the gesture.

"Well, she seems to like you. That's good." Someone said.

I turned and found a young man with blond tousled hair standing before me.

"This cow is a present," he said, "from the old man Dunhill, mind you."

"And you are…?"

"Neil Forrester," he replied curtly. "So, what do you want to name the cow?"

"Eem… Remu?"

"Okay, that should be it. Take a good care of her. Bye."

Without saying anything more, that guy left the farm. I decided to led the cow, now named Remu to the barn and gave her some fodder to feed on. I also took this time to feed Kazuki.

Reine got back to the house, exhausted, just as I finished cooking lunch. "Anything happened?" she asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary."

It was when she heard the cow. "Nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Oh yeah, the animal guy came and gave us that cow. From Dunhill, he said."

"What animal guy?"

"Remember the trader Dunhill told us? That guy."

"Oh, nice! This farm wouldn't be as quiet anymore now. I should say thanks to them after lunch!"

* * *

Reine

It wasn't hard to look for Neil's house: just look for another clean building with no shipping bin and store sign besides Dunhill's house if there's no "Animal Store" sign. And I found it in a matter of minutes. It was a plain, red brick house with some flower decorations in front of it. I knocked the door and came in, "Excuse me…"

"I WON'T BUY ANYTHING FROM YOUR STORE!" someone shouted.

Whoa.

I decided to quietly tiptoed inside. Their argument was so intense that no one noticed me.

"That's fine with me," another guy replied. He should be Neil. "I won't sell anything to the likes of you as well."

"WHAT THE HECK?! WHAT KIND OF BUSINESSMAN ARE YOU?!"

The man stormed out of the house and when he saw me standing in front of the door, he shoved me aside and slammed the door. "What the…?!"

"What are you doing here?" Neil asked sharply when he realised my presence.

"What was that?"

"None of your business."

I stared at him intently.

"What? Don't give me that look!"

I wasn't giving up and Neil finally conceded, "Fine! Fine! I'll tell you: that man just now was a customer of mine. He accused me of purposely selling sick cows to him. When I asked why he could say such things, it turned out he treated them so badly! So it descended into a fight!"

"So, what happened to the cows?"

"Huh?" he stared at me with a confused look, before he frantically looking through his drawers, "Shit! I have to give them some medicine! Maybe I could still make it if I run!"

He took some blue bottles out of one of his drawers and ran off. That was quick, I thought to myself as I swept my eyes across his house. He had tidied it rather neatly, for a guy's standard. And he was dashingly good-looking, frankly speaking: he got nice golden blond hair and sharp eyes with the colour of deep red wine. I felt it was rare for someone to have that shade of eyes (well, maybe it was the same for others about this pink hair).

After some moments, Neil came back to the house. "Eh? You're still here?!"

"So, what happened?" I asked him, ignoring his question.

"Well, I gave him the medicine and told him how to look after his animals better."

"That's very nice of you."

He looked away, "Well, I'm an animal trader. Oughtta teach my customer how to do it if they don't know." He continued, "but thanks for reminding me about the cow. I was so angry that I forget about the poor animals!"

"No problem,"

"What are you still doing here?" he asked sharply, "You've got work to do right?"

"Oh, yeah, I want to say thanks for the cow earlier!"

"Say it to Dunhill."

"I will! But I also should thank you for delivering it to the farm, too!"

"Ugh... yeah, no problem."

"Okay, I'll be going. Bye!"

When I was about to open the door, I remembered I hadn't properly introduced myself. "Oh, my name is Reine Kreiss."

"Um... nice to meet you." he said hesitantly, "No! Don't get me wrong! This village is almost like a ghost village! So, it's nice to see new people around!"

Well, although his attire made him look more like a rocker than an animal trader, he got that adorable boyish awkwardness in his words. Somehow, the effect of it pleased me that I couldn't hold back my smile. "Yes, it's nice to meet you too." I told him before I went out and looked for Dunhill.

Dunhill was taking a walk around the village when I saw him. "Dunhill!" I called out. He turned back and seemed to be delighted to see me, "Hey, umm..."

"Reine," I said, knowing well he couldn't distinguish me from Gwen. "Thanks for the cow, by the way!"

He looked puzzled, which in turn made me puzzled as well. "What cow?" he asked.

"Well, the cow you asked the animal guy to send to us!"

His expression didn't change. Dunhill obviously had no idea of what I was talking about.

That was the moment I realised that the cow wasn't a gift from Dunhill. Why didn't Neil just tell us that it was from him? Such a strange guy. But, his concealed kindness and generosity really touched me. Sure, he looked like pushing people away from him, but I believed he has a good heart.

"Thanks Dunhill!" I said immediately as I ran back to the farm.

"For what?"

"For everything!"

I ran cheerfully to the farm without really noticing what was going around me that I bumped into Gwen.

"Ouch!"

"Oww! Sorry Gwen!"

"What happened to you?"

"Oh, yeah, I've said thanks to both of them just now!"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" I assured her, "Hey, what do you think of the animal guy?"

"Well... he's... scary...?"

"Really?" I chuckled, "Well, I think he's not so bad!"

* * *

Gwen

It was the end of the week and our turnips were ready to be harvested. Reine and I spent our morning harvesting those turnips and planting some potatoes. As Reine prepared them for shipping, I checked on Kazuki and Remu. There was nothing on their feeding box as well as the fodder dispenser. Shoot, I forgot to stock the fodder supply yesterday.

I didn't say anything to Reine and directly headed to Neil's shop on the plaza. It was already past ten, so it should be open. I approached him across the counter, "Uh..."

"Hey, if you're here only to look around, feel free to leave..."

What? He completely ruined my mood for shopping! Without saying anything I turned back and went home. What kind of businessman who drove away his customer?! I would never buy anything from him.

"Eh? Where have you been?" Reine asked when she noticed me walking from the village.

"He pissed me off."

She looked puzzled, so I told her what happened a few moments ago. Reine tightened her fist and said, "Leave it to me!"

Reine came back quite soon with a handful of fodder. "Did you say anything to him?" Seeing this was Reine, I wouldn't be surprised if she gave him some of her piece of mind.

"Yeah, I told him: 'I'm not so free to come here just for looking around!'"

"Then what did he say?"

"He said: 'If you're here to buy something, look all you want.'"

"His behind-counter skill is hopeless." I said.

"I couldn't agree more."

After making sure that Kazuki and Remu were fed, we tightened the ropes around our harvest, to make sure they wouldn't be crushed when we shipped them later. Then, Reine and I decided to forage for some items and critters to be shipped as well. Reine made us some lunch, knowing that we would most likely spend half the day in the forest, mountain, and river area.

Spring was the best time to forage for flowers and herbs, and we managed to fill up both of our baskets full of them. "Well, we can expand the field with the money we have saved!" Reine exclaimed excitedly as we sat on the pier side by side with our fishing rods ready to catch some good fish.

"I think we should buy some livestock first. You know, chicken or sheep would be nice."

"That's a great idea!" she agreed, "Well, but you won't deal with Neil again, seeing that it's you."

"Never."

"Just say you're too lazy to walk to his store."

"I don't care what you said, but I will not deal with him ever again." I replied sternly.

As the sunset was nearing, we rounded up our fishing and put everything inside the basket. Reine took our harvest from the farm and we shipped them all together to Emma. That was when the guy we were talking about showed up with a shocked look at us.

"Eh?"

"Huh?" Reine asked, "What's your problem?"

"There are two of you..."

"You don't know we are twins?"she snapped.

"Hell no!"

"Oh well..." Reine sighed as we put the last item into the bin and dusted off our hands. "Now you know..."

Neil seemed to be stunned still.

"Well, I'm Reine, as you've known." Reine said, "and this is my elder twin, Gwen."

"You delivered the cow to Gwen, but it was me thanking you in your house. It was Gwen who came to your shop the first time round but I heard you drove her away with your hopeless behind-counter skills so I came in her place."

"That's none of my business which is whom!" he snapped. Apparently he didn't really get Reine's words. Well, sometimes she talked very fast even I could barely follow her train of words.

I grinned, "You'll get used to it, animal guy."

Neil shrugged and left with his animal carriage. He was terribly rude.

"I hate him," I muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing."

"Hey Gwen! Reine!"

Both of us turned back and saw Dunhill with two other, unknown people. One of them was a short man and another was a young woman. A smart guess from their appearance: they were missionaries of the church.

"We have new people moving in, this is Pastor Nathan and this is Alisa. They come from Verdure Island." Dunhill said excitedly.

"May the Harvest Goddess' blessing be with you!" he greeted us.

"Hello, nice to meet you two, I'm Alisa." she said, "Please come by to the church!"

Now I remember, there was an empty church at the western side of this village. With Pastor Nathan and Alisa's coming, it would be the only occupied building there.

"Nice to meet you!" Reine answered, while I only smiled and nodded at them.

As Dunhill led them to the church I nudged Reine, "When are we being religious?"

"Well, it's always nice to meet other people, right? Especially in this kind of place." Reine asked back, "Since when we need to be religious to be nice to church people?"

I didn't say anything anymore. No matter what, I didn't think I would ever come to the church anyway. We bid them goodbye as they walked towards the western side and we went home, satisfied with all the shipping we have done today.

* * *

Reine

The next day, we received an ample payment from our shipping yesterday. I personally wanted to expand the field so that we can grow more things, but Gwen wanted a chicken so that we could have some eggs. After some thoughts, I agreed to channel the money to buy a chicken instead. But that meant I have to face that animal guy... again. I didn't mind, though.

After finishing my chores, I headed to the Animal's Store. Neil wasn't behind the counter, though, so I was about to ring the bell. Then, I noticed that he was squatting down near the counter, with a chicken in his lap. He bent down and stroked her gently. He was saying something but I was too far to clearly hear whatever it was. Then his eyes lifted up and saw me standing before the counter.

"What are you doing there, Kreiss?"

"Is that the way to greet a customer?"

"Ugh... sorry, I guess." he said, with that same awkwardness I saw during our first meeting. How could I get angry with him? "Well, what's your business?"

"I'm thinking of buying a chicken for our farm."

"Just pick your animal then."

I'm glancing at the chicken he handled just now. She was white and healthy, and seemed to be rather active. "I'll pick that one!" I told him.

He nodded, "What would you name her?"

"Emm... Chika sounds fine."

"Okay, I'll have her delivered to your farm."

"Thanks!"

"Sure, if you need anything else, please do come back."

Wow, there's an improvement with his behind-counter skill!

"Yep!"

Today we decided to forage items together in the forest, since there wasn't much to do in the farm. When we reached near the mountain area, we saw a girl standing there, confusedly looking around her. We approached her, "Hey, are you lost?" I asked.

"Um... I think so." she replied.

"I'm Reine Kreiss and she is my twin Gwen," I said, "Is there something we can help you with?"

"I'm looking for some ores around here."

"There a mine over there,".

"That's great! Oh, yes, I'm Toshide Iroha. You can call me Iroha." she said, "I'm currently training to be a blacksmith, and I need ores in my training. I'm planning to stay here for a while, is there an inn in the town?"

"Uh.. yeah but it has closed down earlier this year." I replied.

"There are empty houses in town." Gwen said.

"Yeah, you're right. Maybe we should see old man Dunhill about this."

Iroha smiled, "Thanks!"

So, the three of us met Dunhill in his house and told him about Iroha. He was thrilled to see that there was someone going to live in this town. "A blacksmith, you said?"

"In training, sir,"

"There is a house equipped with a forge here. You can use it."

"Really? Do you really mean it?" she asked, astonished.

Dunhill smiled and nodded, "Of course I do! Let me show you the house."

The house was an Asian-styled traditional house and just like Dunhill had said, there was a rather well-equipped forge just after the front door. Iroha looked around and from her face, I could tell she was thrilled.

"This is perfect! I can train all I want in this house!"

"I'm glad it suits your liking," Dunhill said.

Iroha smiled and turned to us, "Thanks, Gwen, Reine! Because of you I can find somewhere to stay, and moreover, I have a forge of my own! Thank you! I owe you guys!"

"That's no problem!" I told her, "Besides, it's nice to have more people around, right?"

Gwen grinned and nodded.

As we walked back to our farm, we realised the empty houses in the village were mainly very dusty and some even in need of major reparation. The cleanest would be the inn, of course, yet the dust started to pile up on its front steps as well.

"Don't you feel sad seeing those houses?" I asked Gwen.

"Yeah... I bet they used to be nice, well-polished buildings."

"Well, it's hard to keep them that way if no one is living there."

"True..."

"I wish we could attract more people in town."

"Don't you realise that there are some people moving in."

"Yes, of course I do!" I told her, "But I don't want to stop here! There should be something we could do, Gwen!"

Gwen said nothing. It's always like this: the peace-loving Gwen would never risk entering a verbal argument with me. Sometimes, what she did annoyed me because that way she didn't give me a chance to put my point across and how would you reach an understanding if the other party didn't explain to you their side of the story? Nevertheless, when I saw her eyes, I knew at that moment that she shared my viewpoint.

"You feel the same way too, Gwen..."

"You know I do," she replied at last.

* * *

Gwen

It's almost the end of the season already. This year spring would come to an end soon enough. I walked outside the house, the potatoes that we planted have ripen, such a perfect timing. Reine and I was going to start harvesting when we heard someone calling us.

"Hey, Gwen, Reine!"

It was Dunhill. He approached us together with two new faces, a woman and a young boy, both of them were wearing green bandanas.

"We have a new villagers again! This is Rebecca and her son, Toni." he said with the same excited look when he introduced Nathan and Alisa to us few weeks ago. I guessed he was thrilled by quite the number of villagers moving into this town lately.

"Nice to meet you two, my name's Rebecca. I come to this village to find inspiration for my next project. I may not look like it, but I am an interior designer and I sell blueprints." she said.

"Hi! I'm Toni," the boy said cheerfully.

"Nice to meet you too!" Reine replied while as usual I just smiled and nodded.

Dunhill's face suddenly changed from excitement to worries, "Well, we actually had a bit of a problem here and we need your help."

"What is it? We will help you to the best of our abilities." I told him.

"Here, take a look at this," Rebecca said while showing a professionally-made house blueprint to us.

"I have the blueprint of the house, but I am unable to build this on my own. Would you guys mind helping me to build this house?" she added.

Dunhill had a pleading look plastered on his face. I guessed he really didn't want her to leave this town.

"Okay!" we replied.

"Thank you!" Dunhill said, looking happy all over again, "Don't worry, we don't need to build it from scratch. We will use the empty house in front of the plaza, repair it, and add new furniture inside so it will look like a brand new house!"

It turned out that Dunhill actually asked for help from the whole village. We gathered together near the river to collect materials: lumbers and material stones. I saw Reine and Neil together near the mountaintop, getting along rather well and I didn't really like it. I didn't mind Reine being close with someone other than me, but not with that rude animal trader. Seriously, from all people? Suddenly, Rebecca approached me.

"Emm..."

"Gwen," I replied instinctively.

"Okay, Gwen, you two really look alike. Anyway, I noticed that there is a studio in your house." she said.

Studio? I didn't know anything about that. She seemed to realised that I was puzzled.

" The room beside your house, It is a studio."

Oh, it's that room! I did realise that there was a room beside the house, but I never bothered to open or check on it.

"Yes, can you help me again? With a studio, you can make furniture from all the materials that we have gathered. I myself cannot make them so I can only ask you guys."

"I will try," I said. Reine and me have decided to help them anyway so we should try to help them as much as possible. I called Reine to go back to the farm. We checked the studio Rebecca has mentioned and there were tools everywhere.

"This is neat," I said to Reine.

"Yeah, I never realised that we had this room in our house!"

Rebecca had given us the blueprint and the materials so we quickly started to make the furniture. We tried our best to finish it as fast as possible so the house can be ready before night. We made the furniture from scratch: moulding the lumbers and material stones into shapes, putting them together, and polishing as well as painting them. We found out that we actually really enjoyed this activity as much as farming.

After hours of chiselling and painting, we finished all the needed furniture. We went to the village, the house were ready. The other villagers already cleaned it inside out. Now, it really looked like a new house.

"Rebecca, we have finished the furniture!" Reine said excitedly.

Rebecca smiled at us and Dunhill asked the other villagers to come to our farm and help her bring the furniture to the new house.

"Wow! This is amazing!" Hana exclaimed.

"Yeah! This is like a pro work!" Emma agreed.

"I think you two have the blessing of Harvest Goddess for making this furniture." Nathan joined in.

"Hm... not bad." Neil said.

"Thanks!" We both said cheerfully. It felt amazing to hear their praises.

As we brought the furniture over, I noticed Neil with my twin, again. They brought the dining table together, just the two of them (well, I must admitted they were quite strong, carrying that table by only the two of them). Should I ask her about it? I didn't really bother about other's private life, but this was my twin we're talking about.

Thanks to all the villager's effort, our goal to prepare the house before evening was achieved. Rebecca treated us all for dinner as her thanks, and it was nice to eat with all of them once in blue moon. Reine sat next to me. "Hey," she greeted. "Let's eat together with the lot of them."

"Ugh, you know I don't really like crowds."

"I do, but you need to socialise more! We're not eating with them _everyday_."

Reine always had a way to convince others, and even though I was well aware of her persuasiveness, I still couldn't say no to her. So we joined the circle and we sat between Neil and Rebecca (with Reine beside the animal guy, of course).

"You know, you really did a marvellous job on those furniture!" Rebecca said, "I'm not kidding! Your work is just like a trained carpenter's!"

I smiled, "Thanks. I'm glad you like it."

Then we mainly talked about how was life for each of us (for the two of us it was mainly Reine talking to them with me to second her words). The animal guy didn't talk about his, though, he just continued eating his share (not like I cared about his life story).

We headed back to the farm at around eight, just enough time to take Remu and Chika back to shelter before they fell asleep on the grass field.

"You get along well with the animal guy," I tried to start the conversation.

"Well, it doesn't sound like you to poke around other's private business and I don't really like people doing that-"

"-but since it's you I think I'll make an exception." we both continued, before we grinned at each other.

"So?" I demanded her.

"Well, there was someone who refused to have any business with him." Reine said as she glanced at me with the you-know attitude. "And while expanding the farm, I guess we've agreed to increase the number of animals as well, so there must be someone who takes care of it."

"I know." I replied, "But..."

"Gwen, unlike crops which quality was determined by its skin, we can't judge a person only by his outer attitude. I won't ask you to like him, but I beg you to tolerate him." Reine said, "If you ask me whether I'm in love, my answer is 'hell no', but I think you give him too little credit. I agree with you that his social skill is below average, though."

"I do realize that," I admitted. "But if I have a chance not to deal with him, why should I?"

Reine sighed, I guessed she had enough with my stubbornness regarding socialising with other people. She should have known that I would not talk to people that I don't like and Neil was one. He really gave me a very bad first impression after all.

For a while, there was silence between us.

"Hey, Gwen, do you remember the thing we talk about few weeks ago when Iroha came into this town?" Reine broke the silence.

I nodded, Reine smiled at me. I believed we were thinking of the same thing right now, I smiled back at her.

"Don't you remember what I told you once? 'Maybe this is our own 'save the homeland'.'?" I said.

"Yeah... This is it, I know the things we can do now!"

I nodded in agreement, "Yeah."

"But before that...," I added, "We need to harvest our potatoes."

Reine fell silent, she scratched her head and said, "Tomorrow?"

"... Okay …"

We laughed at each other. That was what it meant to be twins, I guessed.

* * *

Coming Up: A little bit about the twin's past and some new guys in town! (Hint: they are best buddies and both are eligible bachelors!)

R&R and thanks for reading! ^^


	3. Reviving the Village Pt 1

Here goes the continuation of the twin's journey :)

* * *

Reine

It's finally the first day of Summer and it's been a few days since Rebecca came into this village (we did harvest the potatoes the next day). Gwen and me had been discussing about what we could do to revive this village, to make this village sounds like the story our father used to tell us and we had come to the conclusions that we could repair the houses and make furniture. We would make all the houses look like a brand new houses so people from other towns and villages will be interested to live in this village, but we needed the blueprints for it (designing something was already a different story for us). Maybe if there was more festival in this village, more people would be drawn to here, too; the only festival in spring was Spring Harmony Day in which the only eligible bachelor in this village was Neil who was very unlikely to celebrate the festival. I went to Iroha's house to ask for her opinion and she agreed on our idea.

"I'm going to help as much as I can," she said with an affirmative smile.

We were planning to talk with Dunhill about these matters this afternoon.

"Gwen, you remember all our plan today right?"

"Yeah!"

Well, it was the first day of the season, we were busy with work. We need to take care of livestock, buy supplies, till the land for summer crops, ship the last bit of spring crops, and at last discuss with Dunhill about our plan.

We have decided that we would finish our farm works before talking to Dunhill or else we would be too excited to do the renovation plan and ditched all our farm works.

Knock! Knock!

Hmm? I wonder who was that?

"Coming!" I shouted as I walked towards the door and opened it. Dunhill was there.

"Good morning! I have something important to talk to both of you today."

Oh, nice, he had just ruined our plan today. With him being here now, we would end up talking about our plan now.

"Okay, you can come in first, I will call Gwen here," I replied.

Dunhill started the conversation the moment Gwen came out of our room, "Actually, I would like to ask for your help. I was stunned by the furniture you made last time. It make me think, is it possible to revive this village to its Golden Age. I believe that it will be possible with your help, I have seen it. I have been making this 'Town Renovation Plans' with the other villagers, but only both of you can realize this plan. Here, take a look at this..."

Dunhill handed a set of blueprints and documents to us. It was a detailed plan about renovation, what should be done to the old houses, the road, and everything. This was very impressive! That was what we just needed (yeah, we ended up talking about this, thanks Dunhill).

"Actually, we were planning to come to see you about this, too." I admitted. Well, he had started it so might as well go all out on this. "We also think that more festivals will lure more people."

"That's a great idea! How about a Crop Festival at the end of each season... let's say Day 30?"

"That's fine with us," Gwen replied.

"That's a good start," I agreed.

"I should go back and finalize the festival plan as soon as possible. So you don't mind helping on reviving this town right? For your first task, I want you to renovate the houses beside Neil's. I know some people who will come back if there's a place for them to stay and work. As long as you finish the place, convincing them to come back will be my job. Take a look at the first two blueprints there,"

I flipped through the folder and found what he was referring to: a blueprint of a salon and cottage.

We nodded in unison and after thanking both of us, Dunhill left. We looked intently at the blueprint he gave us. As expected, it was amazing. I could not wait to start building it. Gwen had the same look in her face.

"Reine, should we start tomorrow?" she said.

"Start what?"

"Farming..."

"Okay." I quickly answered. We laughed at each other again, both of us really could not resist the temptation if we wanted to do something.

"All right! First of all, I will cut the branches we had, you can take care of Remu and Chika then. After that, we can go foraging together and start to build the furniture today!" I said excitedly.

Gwen nodded in agreement. Quickly, we took the equipments we needed and stepped outside.

"Let's go!"

"Wait...," Gwen stopped me just before I reached the door.

I looked back at her, puzzled. It was very seldom for her to stop me so abruptly like that.

"Before that, can you help me buy some chicken treat, please?" she said while trying to look innocent, "We ran out of chicken treat for Chika."

Sigh, she was hopeless. I didn't understand how she could say that she didn't want to meet him again just after one event. I guessed it was her pride.

I didn't have a choice, though, so I went to Neil's animal store before anything else. He seemed to have just finished preparing his store when I came. "Oh, hi." he asked, "You again?"

"Well. I guess I'm being a regular here, like it or not."

"Uh, no, don't get me wrong," Neil suddenly said, much to my surprise, "I mean, you've got your sister. Why it's always you who come to my store?"

"Do you even know which of the twins I am?"

"Reine, right?"

"That's impressive." I admitted, "even Dunhill still can't tell us apart sometimes,"

Neil's mouth formed the slightest smile. "I'm able to tell each of my animals apart from each other,"

"Well, we're not included in your herd."

"No, that's not what I meant!" he was suddenly flustered, "I mean... maybe that's how I can tell you apart: I'm used to spot little differences."

Hearing his response really made me wanted to laugh, and it took my all not to in the middle of the plaza, which started to bustle with crowds (oh yes, some neighbouring towns and villages also visit his store). It seemed he also realised it, so he cleared his throat and asked, "So, what's your business?"

"Seven packs of chicken treats, please."

He quickly packed up my order and gave it me while I handed him over the money. "Thanks, Kreiss." he said. "Please come back again," he added when I turned my back. This made me remember something, so I turned my back again, which apparently shocked him. "I just want to tell you that your customer skill has improved! Congrats!"

After finishing my sentence, I decided just to run back to the farm. Gwen must have been waiting for these treats and as much as I could tolerate her interrogation, I wouldn't want another one after that night.

Gwen

Once Reine came back with the treats, we started working on the blueprints since I had finished feeding Remu, Chika, and Kazuki. I also had taken in some furniture that we could use from the two buildings (yes, she went out that long). We headed to the forest and gathered as many rocks and branches as we could find. We also mined some glass stones in the mine.

To speed things up, we decided to take charge on one building each once we get back to the studio. I decided to take the Salon and Reine, as easy-going and flexible as she was, didn't find any objection of being in charge in making the cottage which needed greater repair.

I polished the mirrors that were to be installed in the Salon until I could see my own reflection very clearly, including my pink hair which I hated so much. It made me remember how the boys in Leaf Valley used to tease me.

_"Hey, Kreiss! Don't you know your hair is weird?" Cal yelled when I was on my way back home._

_"Yeah, it's damn disgusting!" Ed added in._

_"No point hiding it under your hat! That disgusting colour still shows up!"_

_They broke into laughter. I dashed to my home and went into my room. Good thing Reine was still having her adventures in the forest._

_It had been months since they did that. I didn't know how it all began, suddenly they just commented on my hair at every occasion possible. I started using hats while going out, but that didn't help as much as I had hoped._

_They were not wrong, though; no one else in Leaf Valley besides my mother and my twin had that hair. It wasn't like I asked for it._

_Then my eyes found a pair of scissors. Just what I needed. I grabbed it and took a handful of my hair. Those blades almost touched my hair when suddenly the door was opened._

_"What are you doing?" Reine asked sharply._

_I didn't reply her. I just threw the scissors aside. Reine wasn't the one to give up, though,; she approached me and held my shoulders, "What. The. Hell. Was. That?"_

_Reine stared at me fixedly and my mouth began to move._

_"The boys said this is weird," I admitted between my tears, "and you must admit it too, Reine, our hair is weird!"_

_"Hell no! I don't think so!" she denied vehemently, "Our hair is unique! They're the fools for not being able to see it! And you almost become another fool for agreeing with them!"_

_After that, she dragged me to the town to tell her whom exactly of the boys who had said it. Cal and Ed were still playing delightfully like nothing had happened. I pointed at Cal. Without saying anything, Reine walked to him and punched him hard at his face until he fell to the ground. When Ed tried to attacked Reine, she quickly pinned him to the ground before getting up as if nothing had happened. Reine didn't even bother to dust off the dirt on her skirt. Oh Goddess._

_"What the.." Cal hissed._

_"You want to know why?" Reine said as she jerked his collar, "I got two reasons: first, you have annoyed my sister until she couldn't take it, and second, you have been so foolish for seeing things in a negative way!"_

_"You..."_

_"Got any problem?"_

_That boy didn't say anything back then, he just got up and left us, but during dinner that day, Dad was really angry at Reine._

_"What have you done this time, Reine?" he asked exasperatedly._

_Apparently that boy told his parents, who in turn told Dad. But Reine, as tough as she was, took it nonchalantly and said, "Sorry, Dad, I just can't stand anyone who makes Gwen cries for the colour of our hair."_

_It was a sincere apology, but it was also a resolute declaration of no regret. I waited in fear of what Dad might do. If he punished Reine, that would be because of me, and I wouldn't want that._

_Dad stared at Reine, who returned his gaze with an almost equally stern gaze. As the tension rose in the dining room, Mom moved from her chair and, smiling as always, hugged Reine. "Thank you for defending your sister, Reine," she said, "but it's not nice to hit others, right?"_

_Reine was silent for a few moments before she admitted, "Yes, it's not."_

_"How about a trip to the Dresdens after dinner?" Mom suggested._

_"I will apologise to Mr Louis, but not to that boy." Reine said quickly, catching what Mom actually wanted._

_"Why?" she asked, still smiling (sometimes I wondered how she could keep smiling while Dad could even barely hold his temper)_

_"Because if I said sorry to that boy, he will think he was right teasing Gwen that way... which I don't want!"_

_"That's fair," Dad finally said. "But that also doesn't mean I'm giving you the right to punch people."_

_The four of us walked together to the Dresdens after cleaning up, and along the way I kept holding onto Reine's hand and said sorry for getting her into this mess. Long story short, Mr Louis Dresden not only accepting Reine's apology but he also apologised for that boy after hearing the full story. That didn't mean Reine was free from punishment, though. She was to clean the barn for three days, and I secretly helped her doing so as a way of apology. _

Since then, I also grew to dislike my hair (and pink became my least favourite colour), because it got us into that mess, but I decided not to just cut it away, at least not until the thoughts of a salon was going to be built here in this village.

"Gwen!"

I blinked and saw Reine in front of me. Shoot, I ended up daydreaming. "You've been polishing that mirror for damn one hour! We don't have all day to finish this!"

Thankfully it was the last mirror I needed to polish and I have finished the rest of the furniture for the salon. So all that was needed was to transport them to the place, which was actually the hardest part when you only got two people.

"I think we just bring the smaller ones first for now."

With that said, we started to bring the smaller furniture like chairs and end tables over. Reine also brought her toolbox since the buildings also needed some repair., such as tightening the loose floorboards and repainting the walls.

We were immersed in our work on the salon when someone opened the door. "Oh, so this is the source of the noise." Neil said. Ugh, why it had to be him, from all people in this village. Then I remembered that Neil's house was next to this place. Oh, dang it.

"Sorry," I said half-heartedly.

Much to my surprise, Neil took his coat off and took a hammer and some nails, "I guess it doesn't hurt to help you out."

"We didn't ask you to!"

"But you guys made so much noise I couldn't sleep. And don't tell me you are also working on the other building 'cos I notice the furniture outside."

"Well..."

"Are you guys planning to work past midnight?" he immediately asked.

"We don't mind,"

"I do!" Neil snapped, annoyed, "I need sleep and my animals need some peace of mind!"

"Can't help it Gwen, just admit we need an extra pair of hands." Reine finally said, while still painting the walls. She was always quiet once she started doing her work and it took a lot to make her speak, and when she did it almost mean she was annoyed that there were distractions. But her words annoyed _me_. Why she was always siding with this animal guy lately?

Anyway, complaining wouldn't do the work, so I decided to suck it up and continued working on my job. I had to admit that with Neil around, our job was done much earlier; we were able to finish before midnight. Neil was gone before I knew it (Good!) and we were too tired to talk about anything, so once our head touched the pillow that night, we were asleep for good.

Reine

Two days after that, we were working on two more buildings: a house for the newspaper carrier as well as a clinic. We were rushing these two buildings because we agreed that this village needed them as soon as possible, especially after we found out that Dunhill had been the one who delivered the newspaper (that old man needed some break, yeah). Iroha did come to help us with the construction; she also upgraded our tools and made them much easier to use.

"Where did you come from, Iroha?" I asked out of curiosity as we were repainting the clinic together.

"Far from east," she replied. "I don't really count how far, though."

"Is it tough to leave your family?" I asked carefully, hoping it didn't hurt her.

She smiled, "Yes, but I want to realise my dream to be a master blacksmith, so it's okay."

"You're so cool!"

She laughed, "It's just like you and your sister... the two of you want to be farmers, right?"

"Yeah, I guess it's the same."

Thanks to Iroha, the work on clinic was much faster than we had expected initially. After we finished repainting the clinic, Iroha decided to go back to her house and me to the farm.

Well, we didn't manage to plant anything yet because of our busy schedule. I had just finished taking shower and gotten rid of the paint smell when someone knocked on our door.

"Please come in!" I said.

Dunhill came in with two guys around our age. "Hey, Reine, I want to introduce them to you guys. They're the new people here."

"Oh sure! So sorry, Gwen is still inside, I'll call her."

Gwen was undoubtedly excited to see them after I told her that both of them were hunks, so we came out together to greet them.

The first guy was a redhead with small oval spectacles and a rather nice outfit of blue jacket and white shirt with suede trousers. "Hello, I'm Allen Rosencrantz. I'll be opening a salon here, so make sure to come by, especially you are girls!" he said with a certain tone of confidence (which almost bordered to arrogance, mind you)

The next guy seemed to be the next-door boy type with a cheerful smile and a very casual outfit and yellow vest with a hoodie over a white T-shirt, a pair of bermudas, as well as red-and-white sneakers. "Hey, my name's Rod Braxton! Thanks to you Allen and I are able to come back to this place!"

"Oh, so you guys were from here?" I asked, suddenly curious of their back story.

"Yep!" he replied, "but we moved out quite a long time ago."

"After we heard you guys tried to revitalise this place, we agreed to give it a shot, coming back here." Allen continued. "So here we are, and you don't have to worry, with a hairdresser as amazing as me, there will be a lot of people coming here."

Well, okay, he just crossed that line to the 'arrogance' side, which ticked me off, a bit.

"Yeah! Anyway, I'll be opening a pet shop here. Take a look at it later, okay?"

"Sure we will!" I said.

"It's a promise then?" he asked.

"It's a promise," I assured him. I had been thinking of acquiring a horse of my own (since Kazuki only obeyed Gwen), so I indeed need to come to the pet shop. But salon? Oh well...

Both of them left with Dunhill shortly after.

"It's nice that more people are coming into this village, right, Gwen?"

"Yeah," she answered cheerfully. It had been a long time since I last heard her saying things so happily like that. The last time was when she told me that she had a boyfriend.

We had neglected our farm works because of all the building projects these days so we decided to dedicate ourselves to farming today. Gwen tilted the soil and I went to the General Shop to buy some tomato seeds. Unexpectedly, we finished watering all the seeds quite early. So, I decided to ask Gwen to go with me to Rod's Pet Shop.

"Oh, okay."

We happily walked together to the plaza, where Rod's (and Neil's) shop was located. Rod brightened up as he saw us walking to his counter, "Welcome to Rod's Pets! Please take a look!"

"Actually Gwen, I was thinking of buying a horse, since Kazuki will only listen to you." I admitted, "And Kazuki wouldn't be too lonely there if there's another horse in the stable."

"That's true," she replied while laughing subtly. "Pick your choice, then."

I grinned and turned at Rod, "So? Any horse in your stock?"

"Of course!" he replied gleefully, "Which one do you want?"

I scanned through the horses and my gaze was fixed upon a white stallion with raven black eyes. "He's amazing..." I murmured.

"He's a fine stallion, I agree."

"I'll pick this one." I said almost immediately.

"That's a good choice." Rod smiled, "Who do you want to name him?"

"Thor. How about that?"

"Okay! I'll deliver him to your farm later!"

"Thanks, Rod!"

We whistled as we walked back to our farm. It was only two more people, but we could feel the difference (and I got my own horse!).

"Let's quickly finish up those two buildings!" I said, full of spirit.

"Yeah!"

Gwen

Today was very cloudy. I believed it would be raining soon enough. Well, I could not care less even though today was my turn foraging in the forest. I was used to rainy days, Reine and I used to have a frog catching contest during rainy days in Leaf Valley before. Rain would not deter me from going outside.

As planned, I went out to the forest as early as I could. Even though I didn't have problem with rain, I would like to avoid the rain as much as possible. I was too lazy to wash muddy clothes.

After one hour of foraging, mainly picking up flowers and wild grasses, rain fell. It wasn't even drizzling before, the rain just suddenly smashed the ground. I didn't bother to shelter myself (I did cover the basket I brought though, I wouldn't want to damage the goods). That was the moment I spotted some red downs beside a log.

"Down? Rarely see it around this area."

I approached them and bent down to pick them up. As I picked the down, I realised that the rain hadn't been pouring around my head. I turned my head and found Allen there, holding an umbrella above my head. He himself was soaked to the bone (Well, me too actually).

"Hey, you should take care of your hair more, you know?"

I rose up and he made sure that the umbrella was always above my head, preventing my hair from being soaked by the rain (even though it was damn wet already).

"You should not let your hair wet because of the rain. It will make your hair looks dull," he said sternly.

"It's okay, I'm used to this. You should use your umbrella or you'll get sick," I replied.

He looked a bit annoyed and he moved closer to me. From closer look, he was more good-looking than I thought especially when he didn't wear his glasses. He grabbed my hand which I ended up dropping all the down that I had just picked up and shoved his umbrella into my grip before walking away.

"H... Hey!" I tried to call him, but he kept walking. After some distance, he turned his head.

"You may be used to it, but your hair is not and not even a heavy rain can make someone like me fall sick, remember that!" he said as he continued walking away.

I was stunned there for a while. He was so kind, so caring; the exact opposite of certain someone in this village (yeah, that guy). It had been a while since I last met someone like him. It was a very nice feeling, meeting someone like that.

I continued with the foraging short after, holding the umbrella tightly with my left hand.

* * *

We hope you guys find this story interesting and increasingly so! Thanks for reading, R&R is much appreciated! :)


	4. Reviving the Village Pt 2

It seems that Gwen had found love in _the_ Allen, but we swear it won't be as easy as what you guys see in the game!

* * *

Gwen

"Wake up! Wake up! I say WAKE UP!"

Ugh... Who was shouting so loudly so early in the morning? I barely woke up and I had to open the door for that damned person. I quickly went to the door and opened it, Neil was there.

"Hurry up and-"

BAM!

I slammed the door back at him. What kind of manner was that, shouting to people so early in the morning and ask them to hurry up with that annoying look of his without explaining what had happened first? I really could not tolerate this guy. I went back to our room to wake Reine up.

"Reine, wake up and answer that piece of trash!"

Reine went to the door without asking anything since she was partly-asleep. She opened the door and Neil was still there, obviously annoyed at what I had done but I could not care less.

"What the hell was that?! Hurry up and go to the coop!"

Reine rubbed her eyes lazily and followed that animal guy to the coop. I followed them from behind. I was worried about Chika (And I was worried that he might do something to Reine, too!). Both of them entered the coop and I peeked at them using the gap between the coop's door.

"I know! You come here to celebrate our birthday right?" Reine started the conversation. "But seriously, Forrester, you don't have to shout out loud in the morning. It's still freakingly six in the morning and that's not the way to wake girls up, y'know?"

Oh yeah, I just realised that today is 16th of Summer, it's our birthday.

"Huh? What? A chick was born, hurry up and name it."

I just realised that there was this little chick hiding behind Chika. Oh, so the egg I put in the fertilizer a few days ago had hatched. Why didn't he just said so from the beginning? I would have followed him happily (happy for the chick of course) if he had mentioned that. Was it only my eyes or Reine seemed to be quite disappointed?

"Ermm... Chiki?"

Reine's sense of naming was as lame as ever. I bet the next would be Chiku if she got to name it.

"Ugh, I'm so sleepy just take care of the rest, will ya?"

Neil stepped towards the door with me behind it. I quickly hid behind the barrels beside the coop. However, Neil didn't appear from the door. I decided to peek again, only to find out that he apparently turned back.

"Hey, I actually got something for your birthday. For the two of you. Nothing fancy, though."

He handed over a neatly wrapped box to Reine. Neil appeared soon after and left the farm. I rose from my hiding place and entered the coop.

"Oh, hi, Gwen look! He gave us a present for our birthday!" she said excitedly as she showed me the pink box. Oh yes, pink, I had always hated pink since I was bullied because of my pink hair.

"Okay, nice." I replied, feeling not interested at all, "I will feed Chika and Chiki now."

"Okay."

Reine didn't seem to be surprised that I knew the chick's name. She must have realised that I just didn't want to deal with that animal guy. And yeah, we used to peek at Dad together when he was in the barn or coop.

We came back inside the house before continuing our work. Reine was too excited that she got a birthday present other than Dad's or Mom's. She opened the wrapping slowly and took out the things inside. It was... Chicken treat? Reine chuckled and sighed. "Well, he did say it was 'nothing fancy', but still..."

"He is hopeless..." she concluded.

I nodded in agreement.

After that, we continued to do our farm work as usual. Reine was supposed to buy supplies from Hana and I did the farm work today. As I finished watering all the crops, I saw Kazuki approached me, biting something.

"What is it, Kazuki?" I asked him as I stroked his muzzle gently. Kazuki dropped the thing down. I took it and it turned out that it was Reine's wallet. So she went to buy supplies without bringing her wallet? Very clever indeed. Well, I did finish the farm works already, maybe I could go to the town on my own once in a while. Oh, I could take this chance to take a walk with Kazuki also.

I led Kazuki to the town for a short walk. We were heading towards the general store when I saw Reine and Allen in front of the salon. I could not hear what they said but both of them seemed to be enjoying themselves. Somehow, I was pissed off.

Allen took out something from his pocket, apparently it was pink flower. He gave it to Reine and she seemed to be very happy. I felt very annoyed by this.

"Kazuki, let's go to the mountain instead, okay?" I said to Kazuki as I turned back. As we reached the river, I let Kazuki rest for a while. I sat beside Kazuki, pondering about what had just happened. I was jealous. I was always jealous of Reine after all. She was able to speak up her mind and I wasn't. Because of that, she was the one whom everyone loved to speak with, whom everyone loved to share with. Not me... I was... feeling lonely... But this time, I was more annoyed than usual, maybe that was because today was our birthday.

Kazuki nudged my shoulder as if encouraging me not to feel lonely. I stood up, took his rein and walked home.

Upon reaching home, I saw Reine in the middle of the farm. She looked very tired and worn out.

"Gwen, do you see my wallet? Damn, I lost it."

I took her wallet and gave it back to her.

"Here, Kazuki found it."

"Really? Oh, thank you, you save my life!"

"Thank Kazuki, not me."

"If I thank Kazuki now, I would end up in hospital tomorrow morning," she said half-jokingly.

Well, it was late already. It was true that Kazuki went to sleep directly after he reached the stable and he didn't like to be woken up by people (including me, but he still would not bite or kick me).

"Hey, Reine, did anything in particular happened today?" I asked.

"Hmm, not really, why?" she answered, quite puzzled by my question I believed.

"Nothing," I briefly replied. Now, I felt very annoyed again. Clearly something had happened between her and Allen this evening. Why didn't she tell me about it? I still didn't know why I felt more annoyed than usual but I decided to forget about it and went to sleep instead.

* * *

Reine

After I finished my share of work, I decided to have ride with Thor to the forest. I purposely didn't tell Gwen about this. I fastened the rein and saddle on Thor and led him out of the stable. Only after we passed the grass field I rode on him to the forest.

"Reine!"

I turned around and found Allen. I came down from Thor and greeted him, "Hey."

"So, today's your birthday, right?" he asked.

"Uh-huh,"

"I got something for you."

He revealed a lovely pink flower and gave it to me. "This flower reminded me of your beautiful hair,"

"Why, thank you!" I giggled, as pink happened to be my favourite colour.

"I'm glad you like it," he said, smiling.

"Well, I need to go now. Thanks for the present, Allen."

"Sure, see you around, then."

I climbed on Thor and gently nudged him to start moving. I decided to stop beside the river and tied Thor's rein on the nearby tree. I took out my shoes and dipped my legs into the gently streaming water. It felt cold against my skin, but it was nice.

Today was our birthday, and to be frank it was actually not my favourite day of the year. My mind wandered back to our childhood as I silently watched the river.

Throughout these years, I had come to believe that Gwen was our Dad's favourite. Well, why wouldn't she be? She was everything you could ask from a daughter: she was kind, calm, and obedient yet no damsel in distress. She never got into nasty mess like I had: fighting with the neighbourhood boys or suddenly missing in the forest. I loved Gwen, mind you, and I hoped I could be more like her, but I guessed I wouldn't be the real me that way. I was content and happy about who I was, it's just that I hoped my Dad was, too.

Dad never explicitly told me about that, but I could pick the hints up: Dad sometimes told me to be more like her, or that I needed to control my temper (which I had managed to do over these years).

The biggest hint ever would be Kazuki, though. He was supposedly our seventeen's birthday present. Yeah, he was supposed to be _our_ birthday present, but Dad gave him when I wasn't around. I only learned about him during dinner that night. They wouldn't even mention about him if I didn't ask them, "Whose foal in the stable?"

"Oh, he's Kazuki, your birthday present," Dad had mentioned so casually.

The feelings I got that night prevented me to love Kazuki as much as I do to other horses, and I guessed Kazuki kind of felt it, so Kazuki never liked me as much as he did to Gwen.

I had always kept this to myself, and no one ever guessed. Even Gwen never realised why Kazuki and I were sort-of nemesis. I found out if you spoke often enough, nobody would even guess you were hiding something inside. Yeah, I believed that was the case with me. Now I learned that one of the best way to hide your feelings would be talking of anything else other than that.

I spent some more time on the riverside until it was near dinner time. After I put Thor back into the stable, I realised that my wallet wasn't in my pocket. Shoot! Where had I dropped it? Well, the best place to start would be this farm, so I began to look for it.

I was busy looking between the crops when Gwen came back. Thankfully, my wallet was with her. She said Kazuki had found it. I noticed she wasn't in a good mood, but I hadn't had the chance to ask as she immediately ask, whether anything particular had happened. I didn't want her to probe into where I had been, so I just replied with a 'no'. She just shrugged and went back into the house. I was tempted to ask her what happened, but I guessed it wasn't a very good idea. With Gwen, it was much better to let her talk about it on her own time. She didn't talk much, true, but she also disliked people poking into her private life, so I better left her alone.

It was a clear summer day and we were tending the crops in the field while Dunhill came into the farm with two new residents. We dropped our tools and greeted them.

"Hey, they are the new residents in town. They come here to say hi."

The first person was a serious-looking young man with raven hair and dark brown eyes. He gave me the impression of being the contemplative kind of guy, you know, one that thought things through and ended up thinking too much.

"My name is Richard Trent," he said with a deep, clear voice. "I'll be opening up a clinic here."

"That's nice!" I said. It's good that we were speeding things up to build the clinic, because we figured that we needed a doctor around.

"If you are feeling unwell, please see me." He said, "And thanks for preparing that clinic. It was very nice and neat."

Both of us smiled at his compliment.

"Hi! I'm Tina Laughlin!" the next person said. She was a cheery girl with chestnut-coloured short hair and orange-dominated attire. "I'm a journalist, so if you guys have any juicy gossip, be sure to drop by!"

"Tina will take over the newspaper delivery as well," Dunhill added, "thanks to both of you, now I can have more rest."

We chatted for a short while before they went off. Their coming reminded us that we had been stalling our work on the restaurant and inn. Well, the inn was an easy piece of work, since it was only abandoned not too long ago, so all we needed to do was to clean it up and repair the sign board (which I was working on). The restaurant would be harder since we needed to check on the kitchen condition and made sure there was no leak at all and we also needed to make new tables and chairs since they were left in irreparable condition.

"Let's continue working on the restaurant." Gwen said as if she had been reading my mind.

"Yeah, sure, after we finish the farm work."

I was walking aimlessly on a Saturday afternoon at the village. I had finished taking care of the crops and foraging, so I got the rest of the day as my day off.

When I walked past Neil's house, it hit me: Maybe I should ask him for a walk; today was his day off, too, after all. I was about to knock on his door when it was opened and Rod came out. Rod?

"Oh, hi Reine, looking for Neil?"

"Uh, yeah.."

"He's inside." He said, "I need to go back and take something, see you later!"

I went inside after Rod left and was about to call Neil when I saw him squatting on the floor and talking to... a dog.

"Don't worry, your master will be back soon!" Neil said as he stroked the dog very gently. "You're such a cutie, aren't you?"

Cutie? I'd never thought that Neil got such vocabulary in his personal dictionary. I stood there, speechless, yet enjoying the scene that was unrolling before my eyes. However, my fun was rather spoiled when the dog noticed me and approached me innocently. Neil stood up and turned back, only to find me in his house. "Kreiss?!"

Wow, he didn't realised I had been standing here for a few minutes.

"H... how long have you been there?"

I studied him carefully and realised that he was blushing. The inner me burst out laughing at this. Maybe I shouldn't tell him I saw it. That would spoil my fun, and I guessed I didn't want him to feel embarrassed.

"I just got here."

"G.. good." He said awkwardly, "Rod asked my to look for his dog while he got back to take something he left in his house, but I need to go. I'm going to his place, wanna come along?"

"Sure!" I said, still trying hard not to laugh.

So, we walked to Rod's house, which was actually just next to his house. Neil knocked on the door and opened it, letting the dog went in first. Rod was clearly surprised to see us (and his dog). "Neil? I was just going to go back there."

"What kind of master are you? A dog needs his master! Besides, I can't do favour to you all day long!"

"Wait, what? But you volunteered-"

"Enough double talking! I don't know what are you talking about!" Neil cut in, "I'm going! Bye!"

With that, Neil stormed off the house and was gone at the next moment. Rod was clearly clueless, "What the hell was his deal?"

Well, maybe I should tell him what had went on in Neil's house. "I saw him playing with your dog. He baby-talked him!" I finally burst out laughing while saying the last sentence. Seriously, I couldn't hold it anymore. Rod was puzzled for some seconds before he joined in laughing with me, "Are you serious? Hahahahaha..."

"I am! He called your dog a 'cutie'! He didn't realise he was the cutie himself! You should have see it!"

"Yeah, maybe I should have." Rod agreed, "He is actually shy, Neil, I mean."

I took a deep breath and nodded, "So I realised." I told him. "Hey, are you mad at him? For... just now?"

"Nope, especially now that I know why." he said, "He must be embarrassed, although he may not look like it,"

"Yeah, he's really one of a kind, isn't he?"

Rod grinned, "I'm glad to see someone understands him!"

"Hm?"

"Well, people often misjudge him because of his appearance."

"And his harsh words." I added, "but I know he's much more than that."

Rod smiled, "Yeah."

* * *

Gwen

The day was quite late when I realised that Allen's umbrella was still within my possession. I planned to return the umbrella as soon as the rain ceased, but that day, the rain never stopped at all. I ended up forgetting until today. Rain fell and I saw his umbrella when I picked up my own umbrella.

I decided to go to the salon before doing any work so I would not forget again. I took his umbrella and went to the salon.

The salon hadn't opened yet when I reached there. Of course, it was still very early in the morning. I knocked the door and waited for a reply. He should have been there anyway. Soon after, Allen came out from the door.

"Oh, it's you, Gwen. Come in first, you don't want to stand in the middle of the rain." he greeted me, as sweet as he had been that time.

I nodded and went in without saying anything. It was the first time I entered the salon and it was neater than I thought. I was the one who built it, but I guessed Allen did some decorating here and there. It looked much nicer than the newly-built salon when Allen hadn't moved in.

"What business do you have here? I am not in the mood to talk in the morning, so I prefer you don't talk to me much now."

I didn't want to annoy him so I quickly took the umbrella and gave it back to him.

"Here's your umbrella," I said.

He seemed to be quite puzzled seeing me returning his umbrella, but he still took it and smiled (Shoot, he was very charming when he smiled).

"It was a man's responsibility to help a lady in need. Thanks, you sure are very nice to run an errand for your sister."

Wait, errand? sister? So he thought I was Reine at that time? Oh, I knew now: he was pursuing Reine all this time. That umbrella and that kindness were all for Reine, not me. Why did we look so alike? Why were we twins? And why did I feel so pissed off by this? I tried to hide my disappointment, but I just couldn't. I really felt like crying right now.

"Yeah..." I answered softly, faking my smile the best that I could and I ran outside as fast as possible, not caring about the rain anymore. This was too much for me.

I ran back to the farm only to find Reine playing with Thor, her horse. Damn it, she was the last person I wanted to see now. Reine seemed to notice me as she ran towards me with her usual smile. "Hey, Gwen! Where have you been?"

"That's none of your business." I hissed, not bothered to hide my anger.

"Are you okay?" she said, looking puzzled.

"You took everything away from me!" I snapped, could not pent up my anger anymore.

"Wait, can you tell me what exactly happened?"

I could hear that she was actually a bit annoyed, but I was very annoyed at her that time that I didn't care about how she felt at all.

"Why it's always you?! Every time! People notice only you! People want to be your friend but not mine! Even Allen..."

"Wait..."

"Shut up! Go away! I'm sick of you!"

I could see Reine's face reddened. She turned her head and shouted, "Thor!"

Apparently she had trained Thor pretty well, since he immediately ran to her and stopped just before her. She jumped on Thor, not bothering to put on any saddle or rein on him (well she could ride pretty well even without those and Dad had once thought Reine would be a horse racer instead of farmer). She gently kicked Thor by his belly and with that, they disappeared from my sight.

The moment she left, tears flowed down on my cheeks. I really couldn't take it anymore. I was feeling very lonely all this time. Beside Reine, I always felt like a shadow, ignored. I'm just like an extra to Reine after all...

I didn't know where Reine had run off to, but I could not care less at this moment. I went to the barn, trying to occupy my mind by taking care of Remu and Kazuki.

It had been a week since I stopped talking to Reine. She had been avoiding me as much as she could after finishing her share of work (well, I knew she always come back around midnight to sleep, though). There wasn't much work to do right now because it was the end of the season already and it had been raining so heavily these days that I didn't need to water the crops. Nice, just when I needed more work to occupy my mind. I finished everything before noon, this was too early, so I decided to go and take a walk near the river. I needed time to reflect by myself.

Just when reached the bridge, I saw Allen walking from the other side of the bridge.

"Hey, Gwen," he greeted me.

I wasn't in the mood to socialize with other people now, especially him, but I just nodded and tried to smile at him for the sake of politeness.

"You're lucky, actually, running into me right now. Really lucky!"

What? Hello, you're just the second last person I wanted to see after Reine. How could I be lucky meeting you?

"I was just starting to feel thirsty, so I was going to get some tea," he said, "You don't have anything to do, right? I'm feeling pretty good today, I'll take you along with me if you like. Come on."

I didn't even have a chance to answer his offer as he already started walking to the town. I was confused at the moment so I stood there, trying to process what just happened.

"Hey, what's wrong? Come on, get a move on!"

Dang it, how did it end up like this? I decided just to suck it up and follow him quietly from behind I followed Allen until we reached the restaurant. We took a seat and Allen ordered some food for us. It was very awkward, didn't know what to say and I kept silent while waiting for the food. The good thing was, the food came soon enough. However, I still didn't feel right to eat with him like this. Allen seemed to realise that I wasn't really feeling comfortable though.

"What's up? It's my treat, so you don't have to hold back."

Allen's word broke the silence between us. I didn't know why but I suddenly feel very relieved and I was able to smile from my heart.

"Thank you," I said to him, feeling very grateful. Somehow, I forgot all my worries for the moment.

"I invited you here, no need to thank me," he said, smiling back at me, "Having a woman pay for food or drink while she is eating with me goes against everything I stand for."

"You're very kind," I spontaneously replied and he seemed to be quite amused by my reply.

"You think that makes me kind? No. I'm just doing what anyone would do! Come on, let's eat."

We finished eating the Genovese Pasta he ordered (He ordered one for me too) and he went to Clement, the restaurant owner, to pay for the meal. I stood up from my seat and approached him.

"Hey, Allen, do you know that the one you met in the rain was me, not Reine?" I asked. I didn't like to keep things undercover.

"I do," he answered briefly.

He knew? I thought he didn't know about it, that's why he said I was running an errand for Reine. Did I just make a mistake?

"I thought you thought it was Reine?" I asked again, puzzled.

"I did, but I do know now. It was so obvious when you ran away that time."

Shoot, I was so embarrassed now.

"Even someone like me can make a mistake, I really can't differentiate both of you in the rain when your hair are damp," he added.

"But, you were actually going to give it to Reine, right?" I said, while looking down to hide my embarrassment. I didn't dare to look at him directly right now. There was silence for a short while.

"I would do exactly the same thing even if I knew it was you."

Oh, dang it, I believed my face would be damn red right now.

I could hear Allen chuckled and he patted my hair gently.

"So you wanted to be helped by me that much? You sure are cute, aren't you?"

I was at loss at words, I could not say anything even though he teased me that much. I could feel blood rushing to my cheek.

"Anyway, I better get going now. Do you enjoy today?"

I only nodded, still unable to say anything else.

"That's as expected. I'll invite you out again sometime. Look forward to it," he said as he walked out of the restaurant. Just before he took a step, he turned back at me.

"Oh, yeah, I almost forget about this," he said as he took a pink flower out from his pocket, "I'm supposed to give this to you on your birthday, but you rarely go out so I didn't see you at all. Happy belated birthday, Gwen Kreiss."

And just like that, he gave the pink flower to me.

"You know, actually I hate pink, but I can make exceptions sometimes." I muttered softly, but smile was plastered on my face. I could not help being happy. Just when I thought that I was ignored. Just when I thought that I was left out.

Allen smiled back at me and left the restaurant.

If that's the case, why did I snap at Reine? I just made a big misunderstanding between both of us. I needed to go back, find Reine, and clear this as soon as possible.

* * *

Reine

I didn't understand what Gwen was talking about at all. Until she mentioned Allen Rosencrantz. I didn't know how she got that crazy idea, but I guessed I had to tell her I had nothing for that Rosencrantz guy. As I wanted to tell her that, she shouted at me to shut up and go away.

Okay, I didn't want to blow my fuse on my own sister. Not after I had spent half of my life controlling my temper. I called for Thor and decided to ride to the mountain area to cool my head off. I let Thor wandered around near the pond while I sat down on one of the flowerbeds.

I never knew Gwen had a crush on Allen. I'd never even guessed it. She never told me anything concerning guys, just like she had been with Will. No, no, that wasn't the crux of the problem, but how on earth she came to the conclusion Allen and I were an item? Now she hated me, for something I didn't even know I had done. And I didn't even do it in the first place.

For Goddess' sake, I knew someone much better than Allen Rosencrantz in my mind.

"Whoa, isn't this Reine's horse?"

I turned my head and found Rod walking to Thor. He looked around and found me. He smiled and greeted me cheerfully, "Hey, Reine! I thought he ran away from you!"

"Uh no, I rode him here."

"With no saddle? That's cool!"

I put on a slight smile.

"Sooo... what happened?"

"Huh?"

"You don't just ride your horse without your saddle and rein even though you know how, I guess?"

"Well, you're right." I admitted, "I got into a fight with Gwen."

"What?!"

"Apparently, she got a crush on Allen Rosencrantz and she thought that I had something going on with that guy." I continued, "I'm not saying Allen is not a nice guy, but man, we're just friends! I wanted to explain to her, but she wouldn't just listen to me!"

Rod didn't say anything, he just looked at me with his warm blue eyes, and then he smiled. "It will be all right," he said, "I'm sorry Reine, I can't do much to help you, but I know it's going to be all right."

"I hope so..." I murmured.

It had been raining since morning. What a wonderful Saturday, I thought to myself, and now it had been a week we stopped talking to each other. It felt awkward, but I kind of got used to it by now. I ended up making a checklist of what we were supposed to do and indicated to her which part was hers. She thankfully got the message. But still, it would have been much nicer if I could talk to my sister. I missed Gwen, but I guessed I needed to give her some space.

I decided to forage since we were already low on lumber and rocks for our next project, which was another house, moreover, Gwen once told me that we could get some downs if we go to the forest while raining. It would be nice if we could dye some of the furniture we made.

I put on my pink raincoat and took my basket. As I walked past the village square, I saw some people outside, such as Hossan the inn proprietor who had come back to this village, Emma, and Iroha. I greeted them before I headed to the forest. Iroha was bringing some ores; she sure was hard working.

"Why, Reine, the forest is dangerous during these times!"

"Got no choice, we need some rocks and lumbers." I told her, "And Gwen told me we can find some downs during rains."

"Well, true..." she said, "Just be careful, dear, okay?"

"Will do! Thanks Emma!"

There was less animals in the forest and I could spot some frogs jumping around while croaking happily. Just as I looked around, I spotted some red downs on the cliff. Yeay!

Unfortunately, I had to take a detour since the cliff was too steep to be walked on.

As I walked to the cliff, the rain became even harder and the wind blew even stronger that I had to hold my raincoat tightly so that the hoodie wouldn't come off. I gathered any rocks and branches I could find along the way and after walking for a while against the wind I managed to reach the cliff and noticed those red downs that were so eye-catching because of their bright colour. I took and put them in my basket, stacked neatly between the rocks and branches. After I gathered all of the downs there, I stood up and turned around, without realising that I stood on a slippery ground. My feet slipped and I swung backwards. My lower back hit the slippery edge of the cliff and it happened so fast I couldn't find anything to grab on that I back-somersaulted before free falling to the cliff.

"Dammit!"

My body hit the rocky surface of the steep cliff and rolled down to the forest ground. It was no way a smooth 'journey'. I tried to cover my head but I could feel a painful thud when I hit the ground both on my head and my left leg. Then there was nothing but burning pain on my whole body, especially my leg. I rolled to the flat ground next to me. At least grass was more comfortable than rocks.

I could feel the rain on my face. It was sharp and cold, but it couldn't beat the stinging pain from my leg and head. I tried to move my head to no avail, since the pain stung so much I could barely hold out a groan. I started to feel dizzy and my vision blurred. Shoot, what would happen after this? Was I going to die?

I was… scared.

I was cold, in pain, and worst of all, alone.

* * *

What would happen to Reine? Stay tuned for the next chapter to find out!

How do you guys find this story so far? We hope it's getting more and more interesting as we've promised!

Thanks for reading! R&R will be much appreciated!


	5. Reviving the Village Pt 3

Hi, it's Gwen this time! Reine has been taking over my account for the past 3 chapters because I was busy. Now, I'm back in action!

Enjoy reading the chapter!

* * *

Gwen

There was something weighing on my mind.

Reine. I got to find her quick.

The heavy feeling inside my heart wouldn't go away.

I picked up my pace.

I was just arrived back in the farm when I heard someone's voice calling for me and found Rod soaked in the middle of the farm. I quickly approached him and shared my umbrella.

"Gwen, there you are..." he said, panting in between, "Reine fell down from a cliff... she...eh... wait!"

I dropped my umbrella and ran as fast as I could, not caring about Rod's calling at all. What just happened? Reine fell down from a cliff? I hope this was only a bad joke. I didn't even know she was going to forage items. Oh well, we hadn't been on talking terms since that incident, how would I know? Stupid me.

I ran to the clinic, ignoring everything else around me. I bolted into the only occupied room in the clinic which obviously was Reine's. There, I saw Reine, unconscious on the bed with a cast on her left leg and bandages on her arms and head. Neil stood beside her bed with a small towel around his neck, completely soaked.

"What did you do to her?!" I snapped just as Rod entered the room.

They were clearly shocked. Well, anyone would be shocked when they hear me raising my voice up. You could count the instances when I did with only one hand, that's how often I did it.

"What I did?! I found her and brought her here!" he snapped back at me.

He found her? So he was the one who saved Reine?

Calm down... I told myself. I needed to calm down for a while. I must admit I could not think properly when it came about my sister's safety. Even though we were technically fighting, yes.

"Sorry..." I muttered softly.

He sighed and looked quietly at Reine.

"Don't worry, Doctor Trent said that it wasn't serious and she will wake up soon enough," he finally said.

"Thank you..."

"Huh?"

"For saving my sister," I said, "You may leave if you want now."

"No," he replied, "I'll stay till she wakes up."

Maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought. I really needed to give him a chance like what Reine said to me.

When Dr Trent came into the room, he immediately approached me, "Let's go to my office."

I nodded and followed him to his office, which was dominated with white and blue. I noticed that the shelf we had put behind his desk had been filled with labelled bottles. We sat down as he put his stethoscope around his neck on his desk.

"Your sister left leg's broken and she has a slight concussion." He began, "Besides those, there are some lacerations on her arms and face. I gave her some sedation to help her deal with the pain, she should wake up at any time now."

"Thanks, Doc."

"I would suggest she spend the night at the clinic, though." He added, "Just for close observation."

"Okay…"

I walked back to Reine's room, a bit relieved thanks to Dr Trent's assurance. Neil and Rod were still there. "What did he say?" Rod asked as he noticed me entering the room.

"She should stay for the night." I replied, "But, Rod, how come you know about this?"

"I was buying some aspirin when I saw Neil, then he asked me to find you."

"Oh…"

I stared at Neil, whose gaze was locked at Reine. His coat was still soaked, apparently that small towel was a little more than decoration for him as he didn't even use it to dry his hair. I moved to his side and softly said, "You're gonna catch cold that way."

That was when I noticed Reine's finger slightly moved. The three of us immediately moved to the side of her bed and saw her eyes opened slightly. "Ugh…"

"Reine? Are you alright?" I asked.

"Who…" she replied weakly, "Who…?"

Okay, maybe she was still under the influence of the sedative. But at least she regained some of her consciousness and I was very relieved to see that. I sat back on the chair and noticed that Neil was already gone. "Wow, that guy moved like a spy." Rod said, "I need to go too, are you okay, Gwen?"

"Oh, yeah, sure! Thanks for telling me, Rod."

"No problem! Tell Reine to get well soon, okay?"

Rod then left, leaving only me and half-conscious Reine there. I took a seat beside her bed and hold her hand tightly.

"Reine, I'm sorry..." I said, "I'm sorry... it was... my fault..."

"Gwen...?"

"Re... Reine?" I quickly asked. It still felt strange to see her so... unenergetic.

"It's not your fault...," she muttered softly. "I was looking for some downs... to colour the furniture... don't you think it would be nice?"

Okay, she was talking about something else. "I couldn't care less about those downs!"

"But... I've gathered a lot..."

"Okay, I'll look for them," I told her, just to calm her mind down. "How are you feeling right now?"

"Ugh... terrible."

"Just try to sleep, then. I'll be around."

Reine nodded slightly and closed her eyes. Her breathing became calmer and longer, and as I was watching her from the side of her bed, I felt even guiltier for what I had said.

"Hey, sorry about Allen..." I said softly, "He has cleared things up just now... I'm sorry."

"... good."

I didn't think Reine was still awake (usually she would fall asleep on the count of three after touching the pillow), but at that moment I felt very relieved. "Thanks, Reine..." I whispered, and from the corner of my eyes, I saw her smiling.

* * *

Reine

Dr Trent would let me go home only after lunch. He gave me a pair of crutches to help me walk. "Please don't strain yourself." He said, "You shouldn't do any farm work for at least two weeks."

"Two weeks?! Are you kidding me?!"

"No," he replied with the same composure.

Damn it! Two weeks? Was he saying I should be a grandma who only sat sweetly every day in the house for two weeks? Hell yeah I would.

"One week?" I tried to bargain.

Dr Trent didn't immediately answer me. Yeah! It meant he was considering my proposal.

"It depends," he finally said, "Come for a check up five days from now. I'll tell you then."

Gwen came to the clinic with Allen who brought some pink flowers.

"I heard what happened from your sister," he said as he gave me those flowers, "Get well soon."

"Thanks!"

"I better get going now, I had work to do."

Allen patted Gwen's hair and left soon after. Gwen herself brought me some fruits, she put them down on the table beside the bed.

"Hey, Gwen, are you dating Allen now?" I asked curiously. "That escalates quickly."

Gwen face suddenly turned red.

"N.. No... How can you say that?" she claimed in panic.

It was very obvious to me that she liked Allen, she was blushing when Allen patted her.

"Well, both of you came here together and yesterday if I'm not mistaken, you said something like... clearing the matter of relationship with him?"

"No! I said, he cleared the misunderstanding!"

"Yes, misunderstanding about _my_ relationship with _him_ which drove you mad, because you like him!"

"You're talking nonsense!"

"But, why him? I mean, he is quite different from William."

"Oh, don't mention that guy again!"

"That reminds me... you never told me why did you break up with him, didn't you?"

"Ugh..."

"I thought we agree for no secrets."

"I just... it didn't work out, okay?." Gwen said after a moment of silence.

From her tone, I knew she wouldn't continue the conversation any further no matter how I asked her, so I decided to keep the rest in my heart.

I quickly finished my lunch so that Dr Trent would let me go. I couldn't wait to go home. Dr Trent came into my room before I went home to give last examination.

"Please, don't strain yourself." he repeated for the third time.

"I won't, Doc." I assured him, "Thanks."

Gwen helped me to get my crutches, and I tried to balance myself on them, which was hard and obviously uncomfortable. At the end of all this, I was pretty sure my arms would be sore.

I hobbled my way to the clinic's entrance while Gwen was still in the room and just when I managed to reach the knob, someone opened the door from the other side, "Wait!" I cried, as I lost my balance. I wonder how painful it would be if my casted leg hit the floor.

Neil entered the clinic as I was about to fall down. He caught me with a quick move, "Hey, careful." he said. My crutches fell to the floor though, but, oh well, it was better than if it was my leg instead.

I raised my head and found his face was so near to mine. Suddenly, I felt my heart beat faster. I had never been this close to a guy. On a closer look, his gaze was even more deep and intense and his eyes looked even sharper. Blood was racing to my cheeks. Shoot, I didn't want him to see my face now; it would be too embarrassing.

"Uh... hi," I greeted nervously. "Why... are you here?"

"That's none of your business,"

"Reine! What happened?!"

I turned my head to see Gwen and Dr Trent rushing to my place; it must be because of the crutches. Damn it, now they saw us in this... awkward position. We quickly let go of each other, but Neil kept holding on my left arm. As I was losing my balance, I had no choice but to hold on his arm. I really needed to work on my balance.

"You're coming back today?"

"Yeah..."

I bent down and took one of my crutches, and when I was about to get the other one, Neil took it first and gave it back to me. "Thanks," I told him as I balanced my body on those damned crutches again. I hobbled my way out from the clinic and I knew full well I was moving annoyingly slow, not to mention excruciatingly unbalanced.

My right leg started to sore since it took much more of my body weight than it should every time I stepped on it. Maybe I should have gone on a diet, but no, that wasn't the main issue here.

"Urrrgh!" I groaned in frustration when I was about to fall for the third time.

As I tried to continue... hobbling, Neil grabbed my arm from behind, "This isn't gonna work." he said before stepping forward and half-squatted in front of me.

"What?"

"Hop on."

"But... I'm pretty heavy, y'know?"

"I'm not interested in your weight."

"That's not what I meant!" I snapped as I pointed my left crutch on him. Shoot, that was a wrong move; my body swayed forward once it lost the support, and my casted leg didn't move quickly enough to counter it. Seeing that, Neil quickly rose and caught me, again. He got some reflexes there. But why was I admiring him?!

With no more question asked, he effortlessly hauled me on his shoulder as if I was a sack of hay. My crutches were dropped on the ground, but he didn't care.

"What the hell, Forrester?!"

"Just shut up, Kreiss."

This was awkward: me staring straight to his apparent well-toned abs. He didn't smell like a barn, surprisingly. He smelled just like the forest; so light and refreshing. My heart began to pound against my chest faster than I wanted it to be. Damn it, again? I hung helplessly on his shoulder, paradoxically wishing this to last and end.

"Thanks..."

"No problem."

"You're a nice guy,"

"No, I'm not."

"You are..."

He didn't say anything. For the rest of the road he carried me back in silence. That was awkward.

He put me down on a chair besides our dining table while Gwen put my bag down inside our room.

"Thanks. So sorry for the trouble."

"I was the one who offered you." He said while walking to the front door. "And Kreiss?"

"Yeah?"

"You're not heavy."

With that, Neil left our house. It might sound silly, but I felt at that time, it was one of the sweetest goodbyes I'd ever heard.

* * *

Gwen

Reine was so annoying, asking that kind of question early in the morning. I didn't have any relationship with that guy nor did I like him. How could she saw me and him that way anyway? I just accidentally met him on the way and when I told him about Reine's condition, he insisted to go with me here. But I guessed, I missed Reine's joke and teasing. I felt more relieved than annoyed that we were able to be together like the old time again.

I noticed that Reine was very excited to go back to the farm. Well, I believed she really missed the farm, especially after one week pushing herself not to be in the farm as much as possible just not to be involved in anything with me.

When I was about to take Reine's lunch, I saw two figures outside the window, just in front of the clinic. They were Allen and Neil. Neil must had passed by Allen when he came here.

"Why are you here?"

It was Neil's voice. As usual, his tone was sharp and rather harsh.

"Why? To see Reine of course. She needs some wishes from me to get well soon."

This time it was Allen. Well, even if I wasn't able to recognize their voice, I believed I would know whose words were those from the way they said it. There was silence for a while.

"You are worried about Reine, right?" Allen added. "Rod told me, that day..."

"Wh... what are you talking about?!" Neil interjected as he looked away.

Wow, I guessed I just heard something interesting. That animal guy, to stammer like that. He was blushing for real (I must admit he was quite cute when he was blushing).

I could not hear the rest of their conversation, although I would love to, because Reine was pestering me about lunch. She hadn't had any meals since the accident yesterday, no wonder she was starving. Well, she had appetite and that meant good although it would be interesting to follow that conversation.

I helped Reine packed her stuff, which wasn't many, into the bag while she was finishing her lunch which was a bowl of vegetable stew where she diligently separated the spring onion.

"Can't you just eat it?" I said, exasperated at her pickiness.

"No, they taste awful."

By now she had separated and threw half of them on her tray.

"Oh, whatever."

After five more minutes of separating-and-picking session, Reine finally begun to eat it. It didn't take so long for her, since the portion wasn't very big to begin with, so as she had insisted before, we would go home after this. I wondered whether why it took so long for Neil to come in; did he decide not to visit her eventually?

Reine wasn't the type to sit still and I knew she would want to try out her crutches as if it was something special, so I let her roamed around the clinic with her crutches while I met Dr Trent and finished the administration stuff.

"Gwen, I'm quite worried Reine won't follow my words, especially 'no straining yourself' part."

"I would be if I were you,"

Then there was a loud clang from outside. My mind immediately went for Reine. Shoot, what foolishness she did now? I bolted out from the room, "Reine! What happened?!"

When I reached the clinic's lobby area, I saw Neil and my sister... hugging? At least it was a cutely awkward hug, especially when they noticed me and Dr Trent. They quickly let go of each other, but Neil helped my sister to balance herself as well as take one of her crutches for her. Oh. so it took that long for him to come in, but he came at quite a good timing, I must say.

Reine hopped her way out from the clinic (well, you couldn't really say her movement was 'walking'). It was quite worrisome, seeing she lost her balance quite a few times. I said a quick goodbye to Dr Trent before following her, only to see Neil offering to carry Reine back home and of course, Reine's bullheadedness to refuse.

Surprisingly, Neil lifted her and put her on his shoulder, ignoring her yells of protests. Oh well, maybe that's the only way to help her. I grinned to myself as I picked Reine's crutches from the ground and walked back.

Once I reached the house, I didn't immediately went inside. I felt being generous today, so I'd let Neil and Reine to have some private time in the living room.

Oh well, what could I expect from Neil? He went out after a short while and muttered a short greeting to me before leaving. Sigh. After giving an acceptable interval, I went inside and gave Reine her crutches back.

"Say, Reine, what do you think of that animal guy?"

"He's fine."

"Just fine?"

"Just fine." she repeated.

"Nothing else?"

"Nothing."

Since when Reine became this quiet? Did her head hit the ground too hard?

Reine woke up very early the next day. I could see her eyes gleaming with excitement. Apparently, she still wanted to work in the farm with her broken leg, clearly forgetting what Dr Trent had told her. Well, I didn't expect less from her, but she had to know her limit sometimes. I had to make sure she didn't go to farm for these few days before she made things worse.

"Hey, Reine, I remembered that Dunhill asked us to work on a tailor shop right?"

"Oh, yeah! I totally forgot!"

"I was working on it when you were away and I need your help to make some of the furniture, do you mind doing it now? It's almost finished."

"Sure!" Reine replied excitedly, without doubting any of my words.

I walked slowly to the studio, making sure that Reine could follow me and didn't fall off. She almost fell a few times though, still the same with yesterday. I guessed, it was hard getting used to crutch. Reine was usually quick at handling equipments. She did learn how to properly use milker and clipper in one try, and she was also quick to adapt it to her left-handedness.

As we reached the studio, I asked her to sit on the floor, took the blueprint, and spread it on the ground. Reine obediently follow my guide and sit down nicely, leaning her crutches on one side of the wall.

"Here's the blueprint and all the materials and equipments needed are already arranged in this room." I said as I pointed out the respective things I mentioned. I made sure that nothing was about to fall off (you could always find something that almost fall somewhere in this messy room before I tidy it up last week out of boredom) before I started my plan.

"Hey, Gwen... "

I snatched her crutches and bolted outside even before she finished her words. I closed the door and locked it from outside.

"Gwen! What is this all about? Gwen!" I could hear her screaming from inside.

"If I didn't do this, you would not sit still right? Listen, Reine, you must let your leg rest. Do not work on the farm this week!"

"I will not push myself, believe me! Let me out of here!"

"No, you will, believe me. Just stay there and do the blueprint, you also wanted more people to come right? I'll do the farm duty this week, don't worry." I assured her.

"Gwen Kreiss!"

"Love you!" I shouted back.

"YOU ARE MEAN!" She shouted even louder as she banged the door.

Oh well, wasn't it lovely to see her burst of energy?

I didn't hear any more noise. Actually, I knew she would not surrender just like this. I believed, she wanted to escape from the studio using her own studio's key (which I could not find anywhere, she must had keep it close with her anytime). I already had another plan though.

"Anyway, Reine, Kazuki will be guarding the studio for the whole day, don't even think of escaping safely."

"What the heck, Gwen?! Are you trying to kill me?!"

"It's okay, I'll deliver your lunch on time!" I said as I used her crutches to latch the studio door and left the farm joyfully. I could still hear her shouting and complaining but I let her be. She would be silent soon enough.

Actually, I had made my decision to do it today. This took me long enough, but I would cut my hair. I had enough being the same with Reine. I had enough not to be able to be differentiated from Reine. I am me, we are two different beings. I had been scared to distinct myself from Reine, because I was scared of what other people thought of. Now, I did this not because I was bullied, I did this not because I hated my hair. I did this to become an independent individual.I could not just depend and stick to Reine my whole life.

Moreover, I was the big sister!

I entered the salon with full resolution. There, I saw Allen, behind the counter.

"Hi, Gwen, you want me to change your hairstyle?" he asked.

I nodded to answer his question.

"Okay, so how do you want it to be like?"

"I don't know... Anything different will do."

I was really blind about hair fashion. This was my first time going to salon to cut my hair, usually I would just ask mom to cut it. I did come here not thinking about how my hair would be like in the end, I just thought of cutting my hair.

"Hmm, leave it to me then. I'll give you the perfect hairstyle in an instant."

Even now, I was still amused by the amount of self confidence that he had, maybe I should learn to be more confidence from him. Allen led me to the chair and started washing my hair.

Time passed by quickly and when I realised, Allen had finished cutting my hair. My long straight hair had become shoulder length. But something seemed to be missing.

"So, how is it? Nice right?" Allen asked, sounding proud of his own work.

I didn't reply anything. His work was very well done and I liked it, but I still felt no different. He seemed to realize that I wasn't yet satisfied.

"Hmm, you wanted to look different right? How about colouring your hair?"

"Colouring?"

"Yeah, for you right, bark colour will suit you the most."

"Why?"

"Your eyes reminds me of willow tree."

"Willow tree?"

"Willow tree symbolises calmness and gracefulness, it really suits you."

Calm and graceful... Was that how other people saw me all this time? I believed that I was actually just quiet and shy. However, my mind went to Reine who had the same eye colour with me.

"But isn't it the same with Reine? She had the same eye colour with me after all."

"It need someone of my calibre to be able to distinguish the colour of twin's eyes. Your sister's eye colour looks more like an Elm tree to me."

"Elm tree?"

"It symbolises strong will."

I laughed at his explanation. Well, that really suited Reine, I guessed.

"So? Are you up for it?"

"I guess it doesn't hurt, since I'm already here."

He smiled and showed me the way to the washing station, "This way, please."

After an hour of gruelling process, Allen eventually finished doing my hair. He brushed my hair and then said, "You're all set! How is it?"

I looked at the mirror and was stunned; I couldn't recognise the young woman behind the mirror. My hair was obviously shorter and wavier... and most importantly, it wasn't pink anymore. I look closely at my eyes, they looked even brighter now that my hair had become darker. And they did look like willow tree bark. But would this really make me different from Reine?

Allen patted my head and smiled, "You know, actually this is all I can do to boost your confidence. Even someone like me can't help more in that matter."

"Huh? Confidence?"

"I assumed you wanted to look different from Reine because you want to be more confident about yourself as an individual?"

I paused for a while. Maybe he was right; this wasn't only about looking different from Reine. Confidence... I guessed I did need some confidence.

"Have faith in yourself, Gwen Kreiss." Allen said, "You are cute, and I don't say that to many girls."

I didn't know what to say. He always had a way with words, didn't he? I looked one more time at the mirror, staring squarely at my own reflection and smiled. I didn't see myself as attractive, but I guessed I wasn't repulsive either. Allen's words managed to conjure up some form of courage in me. I would be true to myself, always. Everything came from within after all.

I managed to build up my confidence these few days because of Allen's words and so I decided to go to the town, doing what Reine supposed to do normally. Aside from that, I had one important plan to do today.

It took me time to prepare as I was still not used to it, but I already made my decision so I would not fall back. Someone needed to buy supply anyway, Reine could not do it so I would. I took Kazuki with me as a company, I still didn't have the mentality to do this task alone.

My first destination was the salon. Allen didn't seem to expect me, well why should he?

He smiled, "What brings you here?"

I handed over a freshly-cooked herb soup. "Hope you'll like this." I told him, "Take it as thanks for an amazing job."

"You flatter me," he said as he took it, smiling. "Let me commend you for knowing what I like."

Shoot, his good look increased by the power of five when he smiled that way. I quickly muttered a 'bye' before walking out.

Next would be plaza. I needed to buy fodder and chicken food. I still didn't want to deal with the animal guy if it wasn't urgent, but I didn't hate him anymore so I guessed it was okay. As I reached the plaza, I saw Tina and a mature-looking guy browsing on Rod's pets. Soseki was a journalist from another town, he just moved in a few days ago. He liked to dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes, quite weird these days I thought. Well, not as weird as someone who always dressed up like a punk rocker though. Tina realised soon enough that I was going their way and waved at me.

"Hi, Gwen! You changed your hairstyle!" she greeted me cheerfully.

"Ye... yeah."

"It suits you very well!"

"Th... Thank you."

I was still quite embarrassed with this new hairstyle, especially when people said that it suited me. I wasn't used to being praised. Well, I wasn't too comfortable in dealing with people like Tina too, she was too cheerful and noisy for me.

"So you are Gwen Kreiss? I have heard a lot about you and your twin sister from Tina. I am Soseki, nice to meet you." Soseki said as he stretched out his hand. "Like her, I'm a journalist."

I simply shook his hand, smiled, and nodded.

"Oh, Sou, we need to go now!"

"Right, we need to go. See you later, okay."

"Yep, see you later, bye Gwen! Say hi to Reine for me!"

Both of them left soon after and chatting gleefully with each other. They might have know each other from work I believed, both of them were journalist after all. I continued my task and approached Neil's animal's counter. Rod was behind the counter with the animal guy.

"Oh, it's you." Neil greeted me with his usual annoying tone.

"Yes, it's me."

"Hi, Gwen!" He paused for a while. "At last I can tell you apart from Reine!" Rod greeted me. He was really an exact opposite of that animal guy. "Well, I'm not someone who can distinguish you guys in a glance even in heavy rain," he added while glancing teasingly at Neil.

"Why are you still here?" Neil quickly asked.

"I am bored, no one come to my store so I come to your place to chat. You are not busy anyway, right?"

"So both of you are free right now?" I asked curiously.

"Practically yes." Rod answered. Neil didn't seem to agree though, but I could not care less.

"I need some help: can you accompany Reine to the doctor for her check-up at noon today?"

"Why should I go with her?"

"Well, you should if you don't want her to fall on the way and break her other leg," I said as I put down the studio key on the counter, "I am _very_ busy today, so I can't go with her."

With that, I led Kazuki away from the counter. I could see Rod was amused at both of us. I guessed he knew what I intended to do. While Neil was complaining endlessly at me, I pretended not to hear anything.

"Oh yeah, can you bring some fodder and chicken treat on your way fetching Reine? She would pay for it, thanks."

With that, I left the plaza in complete victory. Neil would definitely go to fetch Reine later (I wasn't sure about the fodder and chicken treat though, but that wasn't as important). I just felt that I should do something for both of them, like a good big sister would.

* * *

Reine

Actually, spending time in the studio wasn't bad at all. I already got used to the smell of lumber and paint, so I didn't have any real problem spending my days here, except for Kazuki. Although I had a score to settle with Gwen for locking me up at first, I guessed I wasn't that irritated now.

Gwen went out to the village more than ever now, which I thought was very good. For Goddess' sake, she needed to socialise more! Lately she seemed to grow closer to Allen, especially after she changed her hairstyle, and yesterday she went back rather late, telling me about Allen falling sick.

I took a comfortable position and started to make the counter, the basic equipment of a shop. It didn't take so long for me to finish it, especially after I had memorised its dimension. After making sure everything was alright with the counter, I moved on to the sewing machine table.

I was happily smoothing the surface of the sewing machine table when I noticed a tiny brown creature moving between the shreds of woods. I squinted my eyes and a few moments later, a cockroach appeared just about one metre away from me, swinging around its feelers gloriously.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I tried to step away from that disgusting creature, forgetting about my casted leg and I ended up falling to a pile of lumbers. Now that it-should-have-been-extinct creature creeped its way towards me. Damn it! I moved backwards until my back pressed hard against the wall. Ugh, I would prefer enter a fistfight with two guys at the same time rather than being in the same room with a... cockroach.

"Reine Kreiss!" Neil shouted as he bolted into the room.

I raised my head and looked at the entrance, "Neil?!"

Why was he here?

"What happened? Did you fall down?"

"Uh.. yeah... but more importantly..." I pointed at the direction of the cockroach.

"What?"

"There's a cockroach!"

Neil turned to the direction and soon enough he noticed it as well.

"Ah."

"What are you "ah"-ing?!"

Neil walked towards that creature and picked it up by its feelers. Ugh, I felt nauseous when I saw its legs frantically moving. After some moments, Neil came back with my crutches and gave it to me.

"Thanks," I said as I took the crutches from him and stood up. "Why are you here, anyway?"

"Your sister asked me." Neil replied, "Well, actually she gave me no choice."

"How about your store?!"

"Rod helps me watch over it."

"Sorry for the trouble."

He accompanied me to the clinic without talking at all. He didn't even ask about the earlier incident. We parted in front of the clinic's door, but I got the urge to explain to him about that cockroach incident.

"Hey!"

"What?"

"About just now... in the studio..." I paused, unsure what words I should say. Finally, I could only manage a "Thanks."

"Yeah, sure." He said, before his mouth curved into a slight smile, "I guess even a tough girl like you have something you're scared of."

He smiled. To think of it, I rarely saw him smiling. I could feel something in my stomach rose to my chest.

I went into the clinic and immediately went to Dr Trent in his office. "How are you feeling, Kreiss?"

"I feel great!" I answered as I sat on the chair.

"That's good to hear."

He helped me to the bed next to his desk and started checking on my left leg. He started palpating my leg and asked me whether it hurt now and then. It didn't hurt but it was itchy. Well, when was the last time I was able to scratch this leg?

"There is no abnormality on your leg, you should be able to get back to work three days from now on." he said.

"Yes! Thank you doctor!"

"If you don't do anything rash and stupid." he quickly added.

"Don't worry doctor, I know!"

Three more days to freedom. I could not wait for that day to come. Doctor Trent didn't put back my cast and put on a protector instead. He then sit down on his desk, starting to write the medical report.

"By the way, Kreiss, you're not with Forrester?"

"Huh? Why should I be with him?"

"Well, he was the one who brought you here when you fell the other day. I thought he might want to check on you."

"He did?"

"Yes, you don't know about that? He frantically banged on my door and called-well, shouted to be exact-for me and he didn't leave until you woke up. He was gravely worried about you."

"I.. don't remember him being there."

"Maybe it was because of the sedative," Dr Trent said.

"Well, maybe..." I murmured.

Dr Trent gave me some medicine for the pain and some supplement pills before I left. I immediately walked to Neil's store. My leg felt stung as I picked up my pace, but I had to see him as soon as possible. Why it had to be him all these times? Why he always crossed my path?

As I reached the plaza, I saw Neil was tending his animals.

"Neil Forrester!"

He turned back and obviously surprised to see me, "Aren't you supposed to be resting?!"

"I need to say something to you!" I told him, as I half-dragged my painful leg across the plaza.

He dropped his tools and ran towards me, "What is it? Be quick and go home."

When our eyes met, I felt like the words I wanted to say were choked inside my throat.

"I... I..."

"Don't waste my time, Kreiss."

"Thanks," I finally said, although actually there was still a lot I wanted him to know.

"Huh? You come all the way from the clinic just to say thanks?"

"You got problem with that, Forrester?"

"Uh... no." he finally replied, "By the way, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, shoot away."

"Why are you calling me by my last name?"

"Because you call me by mine, too!"

It seemed that he didn't expect that kind of answer. He sighed and then looked away, "You see... just now, in the studio, you call me by my first name."

I tried to replay my memory, yeah, I remembered doing that. Shoot.

"Any problem?" I tried to maintain my composure.

"No." He paused for a while, "Actually... I don't mind you calling me 'Neil', I mean.. yeah usually I address my customers by their last name, you see.. but... well, you get the idea, right?"

Were my eyes deceiving me or was he blushing?

"I'm actually curious about what comes after the 'but'." I said, holding back my laughter.

"Forget it!"

"Well, then, call me 'Reine', so that we're even."

"That's fair." He said as he turned back, "Now, go home."

He's damn cold. Oh well, I somehow got used to it already, I guessed. As I walked slowly to my house, I saw Rod waving his hand at me, "Reineee!"

I turned and walked towards his counter, "Yeah?"

"Do you have any spare moment? Care to have a small talk?"

"I do, but how about your store?"

"It's so empty today I'm almost bored to death!"

I looked around and realised there wasn't many people in the plaza. Even if there was, they didn't really care about the stores.

I walked to the back side of the counter while Rod grabbed a chair for me.

"How is your leg?"

"Dr Trent said it should be fully healed in three days."

"That's good!" Rod said cheerfully, "Neil misses your visits awfully!"

"You're kidding... he just drove me away..."

He laughed, "Aw, Reine... he just wants you to rest your leg."

"Huh?"

"He cares about you... a lot."

Rod's words made me remember what Dr Trent had told me just now:

_He was gravely worried about you_

My heart pounded against my chest wall as those words were echoed in my mind. Shoot, I felt blood rising to my head now.

"Reine, are you having a fever? Your face is so red!"

"Uh... no, I'm fine."

We chatted for some more time before I decided to go home. I always found Rod easy to talk to, no word choking my throat, much unlike when I talked to Neil, especially these days. I said goodbye to Rod and left. There was a hint of lingering pain in my leg, okay, maybe I pushed it too far just now.

_He cares about you... a lot._

Did he, really? And why those words gave me this fuzzy feeling inside? There's something wrong with me, I knew it. But what was it? Beats me.

* * *

How is it? R&R, thanks for reading!

Btw, William that we mentioned above refers to Will from Harvest Moon Sunshine Island.

Anyway, I want to reply chrismajestler's review : We choose Dr Trent because of his personality that we need for future chapters.

Next chapter : A new Sub-arc, The Racing!


	6. Racing Pt 1

Hi all! Reine is back in action!

First of all, we're sorry for the long update, but we hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

Sooo... here we goes: RACING!

* * *

Gwen

At last, it was the first day of a new season. Many things had happened last summer, good and bad, so I just hoped nothing bad would happen on this fall.

"Gwen, Reine, are you inside?"

I quickly went to the door and opened it. Dunhill was there.

"Good morning, I want to talk to you about festival plan." he said.

I asked Dunhill to come in and fetched Reine. The three of us then sit together in the living room.

"It's a pity that both of you could not attend last season crop festival because of that unfortunate accident."

"Yeah, even though I was really looking forward to that." Reine said, looking disappointed. Last season, I told her not to go out and locked her in the studio. I myself didn't go because I found no point on going.

"Hohoho, don't worry though, I have planned a lot of festivals for this season!"

The light had returned to Reine's face when she heard the words 'a lot of festivals'. She really liked this kind of thing when people gather together. I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I guessed I also wanted some form of entertainment in between the farm work.

"So, there will be Cow Festival on the 4th, Horse Racing Festival on the 21st, Foliage Festival on the 25th, and Fall Crop Festival on the 30th."

"Noted," I said as I wrote down the specified date on the calendar.

"Thank you, Dunhill!" Reine said excitedly.

Dunhill left soon after and Reine continued her work in the studio. I went out to work in the farm. Talking about festivals reminded me of a year ago, when I was still going out with Will. I remembered that I always looking forward to festival days because they were the only days Dad and Mom didn't ask me and Reine to help out their work. They were also the only days I could see Will without worrying about work or anything. I remembered one particular incident during Cooking Festival, 2 years ago.

_The faint scent of cherry blossom greeted me as I opened the front door and took a deep breath. It wasn't long since I needed my coat and scarf but now the air began to warm up. Kazuki greeted me enthusiastically when he saw me entering the stable with a brush in my hand._

_"Good morning, Kazuki," I said, "Today you gonna get some nice brushing."_

_I started brushing his mane and moving downwards to his body. He nuzzled me gently. "Aren't you a good boy?"_

_After I finished brushing, I realised that I forgot to bring the horse treat for Kazuki._

_"Wait for a while, I'll come back soon with your treat," I told Kazuki as I walked out the stable._

_BUMP!_

_"Ouch,"_

_"Are you okay, my lady?"_

_Okay, I just bumped into someone and fell. I didn't recognise his face. He didn't seem to be someone from this village (Well, I knew everyone who lived in Leaf Valley). He stretched out his hand to help me stand up. I gladly received his help and stood up._

_"Thanks, who are you?"_

_Looking closer, he was quite good-looking. His white hoody and trousers didn't make him looked less noble. Still a satisfactory image of an English gentleman I guessed, especially seeing that he also had blond hair and clear blue eyes._

_"Pardon my intrusion, I am William Regison. Are you by any chance Miss Gwen Kreiss?"_

_Why did he know my name? I just nodded to answer his question._

_"I have heard about you from your father, It really is an honour to meet such a beautiful lady like you. I would like to chat more with you, but I need to attend some other business. See you and take care."_

_He bid goodbye politely and left. I continued on my way back to house to get Kazuki's treat. At night, when Dad had come back from his busy farm schedule, I decided to ask him about that person. He did mention that he knew me from Dad._

_"Dad, who is that person who was in the farm this afternoon? He's around my age, I guess."_

_"This afternoon? You must be talking about William"_

_I nodded._

_"He's one of Dad's client from the horse breeding. You remember a year ago? There was one white stallion born in the stable and he is the owner of that foal," he said, "You know, he comes from Regison family, that wealthy family from the West."_

_Leaf Valley was well-known for its champion horse, Black Thorn, in the horse racing world. Yes, Black Thorn was Dad's horse and after he won the race, people started coming to this village to breed their horses. Kazuki himself was one of numerous Black Thorn's foal. I remembered, half a year after Kazuki was born, a white foal was born from the same mare. He was the only white-coloured horse born in this farm (Leaf Valley's horses were mostly dark-coloured, even Kazuki's fur and mane were pure black) which was why I remembered about that foal. Soon after that foal was born, he was taken by someone. Now I knew who was that certain someone. I wonder how was that white fella doing now._

_Before I realised it, it was already a bright summer day, the day of cooking festival. People were already gathering in the town square, excited about the festival that was about to happen. I didn't really want to go, but Reine entered as a contestant and she forced me to go to watch her win. Well, that was when something went wrong._

_"Gwen!" Reine called me from among the crowd._

_I made my way to the contestants' place and saw my sister's pale face, "What happened?"_

_"There's no mushroom!" she whispered frantically. "And I can't leave this place to find some now!"_

_"Can't you just make something without mushroom?"_

_She shook her head in panic._

_"Okay, I will try to find some."_

_"I'm damn nervous now."_

_"It's okay, I'll be back before you know it!"_

_Okay, I had to find some mushrooms and gave it to Reine before the cooking festival officially started which meant I had about one hour from now._

_The best mushrooms would be found near the mountain areas, so I ran there as fast as I could. I gathered some common mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms, unsure of which one she would prefer, and put it in my basket. After I felt it was enough, I ran back to the town square. I glanced at my watch, shoot, I had to reach there in twenty minutes. I didn't really pay attention to the road that I didn't realise there was a rock in front of me. I tripped and my knee hit the ground, and the mushrooms I had gathered scattered on the ground._

_"Oh no!"_

_I quickly tried to stand up, but my knee hurt too much that I couldn't bear it. Shoot, I wouldn't make it on time._

_"Gwen!"_

_I turned my head to find who was calling me and Will was there with Arthur. "Are you all right?" he asked._

_"Not exactly," I said as I tried to gather the mushrooms that I could reach back._

_Much to my surprise, Will stepped down from Arthur and helped me gathered the mushroom back into the basket before giving it back to me, "Hold this tightly," he told me with a smile on his face._

_"Uh, thanks."_

_Suddenly he lifted me up and walked back to Arthur. "Sit, Arthur," he commanded, which was immediately obeyed by the white horse. He put me gently on Arthur before he stepped on the saddle and sat behind me. With a gentle nudge, Arthur stood and began galloping back to the town square. I held my basket tightly, afraid that some of the mushroom would fall._

_"Thanks, William."_

_"You are most welcome,"_

_"I thought you're already there."_

_"I was," he said, "but then I saw you leaving after talking with your sister. I thought there was something wrong so I followed you."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because I'm worried about your safety," he said with an awfully honest tone, "It turns out I'm right, doesn't it?"_

_I stole a glance upwards to his face, which was never so near and I just realised how clear and beautiful his eyes were, and how long his eyelashes were._

_We arrived just nicely. I gave the mushrooms to a grateful Reine (well, she'd better be) just before the contestants were called for a briefing._

_The contestants were given two hours to cook whatever they wanted to cook, as long as it fell into the Soup category. All the contestants cooked feverishly, moving in their station like an angry snake, including Reine._

_After their two hours was up, the bell was rung to notice the contestants. Reine was the third to present her dish to Pierre the Gourmet (I didn't know his last name), and she presented Tom Yum Goong. Now I knew why she wanted those mushrooms and why she didn't specify what kind: Reine always liked her Tom Yum Goong to have a variety of mushrooms of the season. I just hoped she didn't put too much lime in it (she loved limes more than normal people did)._

_In the end, Reine did win the trophy like she had believed. She gave it to me at the end of the contest, "Because without you I couldn't have done this," she told me._

_She never knew that someone else deserved her thanks, too._

_William Regison. He was a nice guy, a really nice guy whom I was so afraid to lose. When he confessed his feelings, I felt like the being the luckiest girl in the world. And I arguably was: he treated me like a divine being. But, I guessed there should be give-and-take here: in this case, he expected me to do the same. He wanted me to spend most, if not all of my time with him. Well, he did come by to the farm quite often (he said he wanted to spend as much time as possible with me) and helped out, which greatly pleased Dad as he was willing to learn how to do it._

_As time passed by, my ability to accept how Will wanted things to be done diminished. We started to argue, from petty things like where to go for dates to more serious things like where to settle down. Will wanted me to be a regular housewife, the kind who only needed to manage the household, but I wanted to be a full-fledged farmer._

_In the end, we decided to meet in the bar and talk it over._

_"It's hard, isn't it?" he said, "I love you, angel, too much I couldn't bear to be parted from you."_

_"I love you too, Will." I said, honestly, "But I have had a dream that I've nurtured since I was so young, long before you came into my life. I can't just give it up."_

_"Why can't I become your new dream? Like you are mine?"_

_"It's not that simple, William Regison." I said, "As much as I want it to be, I guess."_

_"'I guess'?"_

_"Yeah," I murmured as I stirred my glass absent-mindedly._

_"Do you not want to be with me anymore?"_

_"I do!" I replied, "But I can't give up on being a farmer!"_

_He didn't say anything back then, and I decided to take a pre-emptive strike, "Since you can't make up your mind, let me tell you _my_ decision."_

_"We are done, William."_

_Before he could say anything, I put down some money for my drink, rose up and left. It was rude of me, of course, not saying goodbye or anything, but I couldn't take it anymore. I needed to get away from him. That was one of the reasons of my enthusiasm when Dad told us the story of his family land in his hometown and his decision to let us take over there. It was just what I needed to get away. Two days after that, my sister and I packed our things and moved out to our new lives._

Time sure passed by fast and now, it had been three seasons since I last heard about Will. Since that day, he never contacted me: no visit, no letter, nothing. I wasn't even sure he was aware of my moving out. But I guessed, it was the less hurtful way for both of us. I didn't know how I should face him if we ever bumped into each other in town; what to talk about, or even whether I should greet him. It would be very awkward.

My mind kept going back and forth while I was foraging until my eyes noticed a white horse, reminding me of Arthur, Will's horse. But I knew full well it couldn't be him, since this horse was rather young. I bet he was of the same age with Kazuki. It slightly resembled Thor, if not for their eyes (Thor's was darker).

"Gwen?"

There was a sudden hit in my heart. That voice. I would never forget it. How could I? I turned my head. Blond hair, blue eyes, a smile as charming as ever.

"Will?"

Reine

I spent my day in the studio, starting on the interior of a new house whose future occupant was, as always, yet unknown. I was pretty thrilled in working on this house since it should be a Travel Agency. After four hours straight, I guessed I needed some rest, so I took a walk to the town. Maybe I should visit Iroha, since I hadn't seen her for quite some time.

I knock on Iroha's door and she answered from inside, "Please wait!"

Soon after, she emerged from the door, I greeted her and she welcomed me in. We sat in her living room and she served me some tea and rice cakes.

"How's life? You're very busy right? You have to juggle between the farm work and renovating the houses."

"Yeah, but I guess I can manage because my sister is with me."

Iroha smiled, but then she sighed long. "Why?" I asked, "Is there anything bothering you?"

"This town... is rather empty." she said, "I saw Neil helped Hana to carry the supplies for her store. I went to help them out, but that made me wonder, how if no one was there? What would happen if she needed some help?"

Hana, the General Store's owner, often complain about her hips. What if Neil wasn't there when she needed help?

"Oh, speaking about this, have you heard that a new guy is moving into the town?"

A new person? I never heard about that.

"Is he staying in the inn?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure, but he shouldn't have a choice right? Maybe you can ask Dunhill."

Iroha was right, me and Gwen haven't finished renovating another house so he shouldn't have a choice other than staying in the inn if he wanted to live here. Well, if he wasn't one of the anomalies. This reminded me of a certain someone who didn't stay in either of them. William Regison, the freakingly rich guy who stayed in his freakingly huge yacht that was harboured at the beach.

Well, being rich didn't make him arrogant though. He was very kind to other people, especially to Gwen. I did remember that he helped me once during tough time, during cooking festival. Gwen never said anything about this, but I just knew. Well, I saw Will leaving the town square after Gwen and they came back around the same timing, how could I not guess? I thanked Will personally after the festival and he merely smiled and said something about gentleman's duty.

Okay. Not my kind of guy.

I still didn't know why they broke up, though. Gwen never told me the detail. Anyway, I feel more motivated to continue renovating the house after hearing the news. It's just nice that people moving into the town. After spending some more time with Iroha, I quickly return to the studio to continue my work. I could not wait for more people to move in!

Today was the 4th of Fall, time for Cow Festival! I couldn't hide my excitement as this would be my first festival in Echo Village.

"Gwen! Quick, let's go!"

"Huh... Okay..."

Gwen seemed to be less energetic (she was never exactly energetic, but still...) since William came into this village. Yeah, I heard the news that William Regison was the new guy moving into this village soon after Gwen went home that day. When I told her about the news, she enthusiastically answered, "That was Will." and went back to the room directly.

She was lost in thought more often as well. Something surely happened between William and Gwen, but I didn't have a say in this. This was Gwen's private life and I didn't have a right to poke into their problem. Gwen didn't say anything to me anyway. I was hoping that Gwen would rely on me more, but I guessed she was just that kind of person who didn't like to rely on others.

In the meantime, the least I could do was trying to cheer her up.

"Come on, we need to bring Remu to participate in this festival!"

Gwen smiled and nodded, but I could tell that she was trying really hard to fake her smile. We brought Remu together to the festival ground. Many people were already there, including people from other villages. This would be a fun festival and I hoped it would cheer Gwen up.

I registered with Dunhill with my name as a representative from Echo Village (considering that Gwen would not want to, especially in this state). Dunhill mentioned that this festival was to measure how close we were to our animals and we needed to perform something in front of the audience later. Quite different from other village's festival indeed. I remembered that the cow festival in my hometown didn't have this kind of performance act. I should think about what to do later in the stage now.

"Wow, Gwen, this is cool! Do you have any suggestions about what to do?" I asked her, trying to grab her attention in this crowd.

"Just do what you want."

Okay, I had enough with this. I decided not to bother her again before I got annoyed myself. I had to control myself, especially because this was the first festival I participated. I needed to make a good first impression, for our farm and for our village. If we win this, Echo Village could be more well-known among other villages and towns and more people would want to move in.

Gwen was watching Remu so I took a walk around the festival ground. I felt more nervous as I saw many good cows from other villages. All of the cows there were clean and healthy; could I really win this festival? I started to doubt myself. Calm down, I needed to calm down. Shoot, I hadn't even thought of what to do in the stage for the performance and the festival would start in one hour time. I was quite screwed.

That was the moment I saw William among the crowd. Even though he moved here like three days ago, I never met him once in this village. This would be the first time for me seeing him personally in this village. I walked towards him, I felt that at least I had to greet him for being a new resident in the village.

As I approached him, I realised that he was actually not alone. He was talking with someone and that was... Allen? The crowds prevented me to hear to their conversation, but they both had a very serious expression on their face. I sensed some drama was going on.

"Reine?"

"N-Neil?"

Oh damn it, it's this feeling again. These days, I couldn't project my voice freely in front of Neil, I wondered why.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you participating?" he asked with his usual tone.

My words were stuck in my throat. I really hated this, just why the heck I couldn't bring myself to say something?

"Hmm? Your face is red, are you okay?"

"Just leave me alone!"

"Huh?! What's your problem?"

Nice, and just when I managed to say something, I shouted at him. He was obviously annoyed at me. I didn't say anything else. He turned his back against me and walked away.

"W-wait!" I didn't know what happened to me, I just intuitively grabbed his hand. I could hear my heart beating faster every second now.

"What?"

"I don't know what to do!"

"Huh?"

"The performance."

"Oh, that. Just act natural."

"But what if Remu doesn't listen to me?" I said, exasperated.

"You know, no matter how short the time they're with you, they will recognise and remember you. Whether it'll be good or bad, it depends on how you've treated them."

I felt reassured by Neil's word. That's right, why did I start to doubt Remu? My bond with Remu wasn't limited to owner and animal's bond, we were one big family, with Gwen, Thor, Chika, Chiki, and even Kazuki (although not exactly the typical loving relationship between a horse and its master).

"Thanks, Neil!"

I bolted back to the place where Remu and Gwen were. Neil's words really brought up my confidence. Yes, I could win this cow festival. To be exact, I would!

Soon after, Dunhill commenced the starting of the cow festival. One by one, the contestants from other villages entered the stage and perform something short. At last, it was my turn to go with Remu.

"Let's do our best, Remu!" I said as we entered the stage together.

I did what Neil suggested me to do, just be myself. I ended up playing with Remu, but Remu was clearly enjoying her time and me, too. I guessed that was what was important.

Now was the time to announce the winner. I was really nervous to hear the results, I hoped we win. Dunhill soon stood up in the middle of the stage and the crowds started to cheer very loudly.

"To end up, today's festival, I proudly announced the winner is..."

Please, let it be Remu.

"Remu from Kreiss' Farm!"

The crowds started to cheer and clap again. I didn't hear it wrongly right? Yes! We won! This would be a huge step for the village to gain back its reputation and of course for Remu.

After the prize presentation (I got a new milker and some money), I was approached by Rod and Allen. Well, Rod was dragging along Neil with him.

"Congrats Reine! Your performance was the best!"

"Thanks Rod! I still have a lot more to go though!"

"Well, I guess you deserve a congrats from me, although this is only a beginner level," Allen said.

Both Rod and Allen stared at Neil, who it turn stared back at them with confusion coupled with annoyance, "What?" he asked.

"Aren't you going to say something to Reine?"

"I never said I would," Neil replied.

Neil stared at me and that feeling came back. Shoot, what should I say to him? My words were lost at the moment his eyes locked mine in that sharp gaze.

"Thanks for your advice, Neil..." I finally managed to say something.

"Oh, sure,"

I then realised that Allen had been staring at my sister who didn't seem to realise she was being stared at; she was just staring absent-mindedly at the empty air. That made me remembered Allen and William's conversation:

What were they talking about?

How did they know each other in the first place?

Well, maybe this wasn't the appropriate time to ask, so I kept it that way.

* * *

What will happen next? Stay tuned to find out!

Thanks for reading! R&R will be much appreciated ^^


	7. Racing Pt 2

Gwen

Will was the last person I expected to see here. Especially after my mind wandered back to the times when we were together.

"Hey, Gwen," he greeted me again.

It felt weird hearing my name in his voice. It had been quite some time since he last called me 'Gwen'.

"Hi," I replied quietly.

"Long time no see! You seem to be well."

"You too,"

Will smiled understandingly, "I know this may be too much to ask, but would you mind to spend some time with me at Chez Clement's? I heard the food is delicious there."

"Yes, Clement cooks very well."

"So?"

How should I respond this? I didn't really have anything more to do after this. Well, maybe there was nothing wrong to accept his invitation as long as we both knew we were nothing more or less than friends.

"I need to ship these first, though."

"That is fine with me."

We stopped by Chez after I shipped the foraged items. He picked, as always, the table that was at the corner of the room. We made our order and he started the conversation, "You look vastly different! I could barely recognise you just now."

I touched my hair. He must be talking about this.

"Nevertheless, you are as beautiful as ever. The colour suits you well."

I smiled. I remembered that it was Allen who picked the colour for me. "The stylist did a pretty good job with my hair."

"I heard you and Reine have a farm in this town."

"Yes, it was our father's family farm and Dad gave it to us." I said, "How's life for you?"

"I sailed through the seas and stopped by an archipelago called the Sunshine Islands." He said, "And there, I met a farmer named Chelsea. She's about our age, too."

"Is she nice?"

"Very cheerful and likeable," he said with a smile, "and she reminded me a lot of you."

"Huh?"

"Her dream to become a farmer," Will replied, "It amazes me, and at the same time, reminds me of you."

I didn't know how to respond to this, but it seems Will wanted to say more. "I'm sorry, Gwen."

"For?"

"Pushing my will to you." He said, "I forced you to be the kind of woman I wished you were, not really accepting you as who you were."

"It's okay, Will. It already passed."

"But I can't rest easy unless I apologise to you."

"I have let it go, and you should, too."

That was when the bell on the door chimed and Allen, Rod, and Neil went in. Oh, yeah, this restaurant was their usual place to hang out: three single men with no girlfriend to cook for them and who were sick of instant noodles; what could be a better option to fill their stomachs with something nutritious than a restaurant?

"Hey, Gwen!" Rod greeted when he noticed me. He walked over to my place, followed by Allen and Neil.

"Who is this guy?" Allen asked as he studied Will carefully, "Is he the new guy people have been talking about?"

"Um, he is... a friend from my hometown." I replied carefully, finding the right way to put it.

Allen and Will stared at each other as if this was a staring contest. Okay, it was getting awkward.

"Will, this guy is Allen, the stylist I told you about."

Will smiled as he stood up and offered his hand to Allen, "I am William Regison, nice to meet you." He said, "You did an amazing job on Gwen's hair,"

"Allen Rosencrantz," Allen replied as they shook hand, "Thank you for the compliment, I am also proud of this artwork of mine."

Will also shook hands with Rod and Neil, the latter of which seemed not to be enthusiastic about a new guy in town.

"And yes, I will be staying for a while in this town," Will added after introducing himself to the guys. "I hope we can be good friends."

Wait, that was news.

"You are?" I asked, startled by his sudden declaration.

It had been several days since Will moved into the town. He would not reveal to me where he harboured his yacht and I could not care less. We met sometimes in the forest and exchanged greetings, but that was all to it. I still couldn't figure out how to behave around Will.

That day, I had just finished tending the animals when Allen came into the farm, "Hey Gwen, are you free at the moment?"

"Yeah, what can I do for you?"

"Do you want to go somewhere with me?"

My heart beat faster when he finished his words. Was this for real?

"So?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure." I replied, trying to sound as calm as possible, hiding the raging tempest in my heart.

We walked to the river area and he sat down on the log just beside the calm river. I chose to sit at the flower bed in front of the log. It was always nice to sit on flowerbeds. A wind blew through gently.

"Wow, that breeze sure feels good!" Allen commented as he closed his eyes, "I've been worked to the bone recently thinking of new hairstyles! I do prefer being busy, but it's also nice to take a break sometimes!"

"That makes me think... why do you become a hair stylist?"

"Let me see... if you ask me as cutely as you can, I might tell you!"

What?!

"Come on, give it a try!"

Well, I promised myself to be more confident. Maybe, just maybe, a little maybe with a leap of faith, this would be one way to be more confident. I took in a deep breath and made the cutest expression I had ever made in my life, at least according to my standard.

"Almost there..." he said, hiding away his smile.

I tried again, pushing myself. Oh my, this was embarrassing. This time, Allen couldn't hide his grin.

"That is cute," he finally said, "Okay, I'll tell you everything. My friend had a problem with her hair so I helped her out. As my skills increased other women in the neighbourhood started to ask me to style their hair, too. Keeping them happy spread word of my talents further, and more and more women started to come for my help. That led to me opening my salon, and here we are. I almost scare myself, having reached such a level of proficiency without being taught by anyone at all! Hairstyle, clothing, and makeup... your appearance has a far bigger impact on others than maybe you'd like to think. A stylist has the power to completely change the impression someone gives. It's quite a thrilling profession!" He continued, "Wow, look at all the info you plugged me for. I don't normally talk that much."

"That's great! I enjoyed it!"

"You do? Thanks!" He smiled, "Now, let's get back to the present: who is William, actually?"

Huh? Why did he suddenly bring this up?

"He was no ordinary friends, right?"

Maybe it would only be fair to tell him everything, now that I had asked him for his albeit the difference in context.

"Well, yeah, you hit the jackpot," I admitted, "We used to go out."

"So you guys broke up already?"

"Yep, just before I came here."

"Then why is he here?"

"How should I know?" I asked back.

Allen rose up, "Sorry for asking you that question,"

Wow, I didn't expect someone with Allen's level of self-assurance would acknowledge mistake and apologise like what he was doing. But why did he bring up Will in our conversation in the first place?

I decided to stay longer in the river area after Allen left. Life was sure amusing; you'd never know how it would unfold. You could plan what _you_ wanted to do and how _you_ wanted your life to progress, but you couldn't possibly take into consideration everything that might cross your path; it was out of your control.

"Gwen?"

I turned my head and found Will sat next to me, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

"Can you spare a moment for me?"

"Yeah, sure."

Will sat next to me and stared at the river. "Do you like it here?"

"Yes," I replied, "Maybe this village seems to be desolate, but this is a nice place."

"I can see your point." he said, "how about we start all over again, Gwen?"

"Huh?" Did I hear it correctly?

"We start our relationship over, we give it another try." Will said, "I wouldn't force you to do what I want. I've learned from my mistake... including letting you go."

I fell silent. I didn't know how and even what to reply.

"Please, think about it Gwen." Will said before he stood up and left.

Reine

Besides tending to the farm, my days were filled with training with Thor for the racing. I usually trained in the empty west side of the farm. Thor, being a gentle horse he was, was easy to train command and techniques, but it was challenging to encourage him to speed up. We usually trained after I finished my share of work.

Dunhill said thanks to our victory during the Cow Festival, Echo Village's name gained popularity among other towns and villages and many were anticipating our first horse race ever. Dad and Mom helped Dunhill out by inviting their acquaintances as far as Mineral Town, where Aunt Lillia lived.

As usual, I finished training by 5 pm so I had enough time to prepare for dinner. I had just come out from the stable with Gwen who also had been training for the festival when we heard voice of horses approaching, along with very familiar figures.

"Dad! Mom!" we called out.

A letter from Mom came two days ago telling us they would come and stay over at our farm for one weeks for the Horse Racing Festival, which was three days away. We helped them carrying their luggage to the house and served them some tea and cookies.

"You seem to be well." Mom said while smiling as usual. "Are you happy?"

"Yes!" we replied in unison.

"How's the farm?" Dad asked.

"It's going pretty well. We're able to afford a cow and some chicken, but no sheep as for now." Gwen replied, "We are also working to restore this village, to make it livelier."

"Yes, Dunhill told us about that in his letter." Dad replied, "Just let me know if I can help, okay?"

"Speaking of Dunhill, don't you want to meet him, dear?" Mom asked.

"Later," Dad grinned, "It's been quite some time since I had a good long talk with him."

Today I needed to buy some Cow Treat from Neil, so I finished watering crops earlier that I usually would. Neil's Animals started to be packed with customer so I preferred to come earlier to avoid the queue.

When I reached Neil's store, I saw a cowboy with some luggage talking to him across the counter. I stood behind him, waiting for their transaction to be done. However, when Neil noticed me, he asked me to move forward. The stranger moved aside to give a way for me.

"I've never seen him around here," I said as I took a look at him.

"He is a friend of mine."

"I'm Reine Kreiss, nice to meet you!"

"Yeah..."

Okay, if Neil hadn't mentioned that they were friends, I was pretty sure I would think of them as brothers.

"Hey, Vaughn! Have you been waiting long?"

I turned my head to find a cheerful brown-haired young woman with red bandana on her head.

Vaughn's expression softened and warmed up. "It's OK," he told her.

"Oh, hello! Can I ask your name?" the brown-haired young woman asked.

"Reine Kreiss, nice to meet you"

"I'm Chelsea Klein!" she introduced herself with a huge, proud grin. I saw Vaughn blushed and he covered his reddened face with his hat in vain. I guessed I knew what's going on.

"They married this Spring," Neil commented, as if he was reading my mind.

"Congrats! Although it's so late..."

"It's okay! Thanks!"

"So, do you want me to show you the way to the inn?"

"If that's okay with you." Chelsea replied with a friendly smile.

I finished my business with Neil quickly and accompanied them to the inn, which was south of the plaza.

"So, do you come for the horse racing?"

"Yep! We'll be competing there!" Chelsea replied, "Will you?"

"Yeah." I said, "Just for fun though."

"So... what do you do?"

"My sister and I are the owners of the farm in this village,"

"You're a farmer, too? That's cool!"

We ended up talking a lot about crops, livestock, and farming management. She was so fun to talk with, and I could learn from her since she was a more experienced farmer than I was.

We arrived at the inn and they checked in at the counter. Chelsea approached me while Vaughn brought their luggage upstairs, "Thank you so much for accompanying us!"

"No problem!"

"And, I'm sorry if Vaughn irritates you. He doesn't speak much and people often consider him as rude, but he has a golden heart."

I nodded understandingly, "I know someone who is just like that."

"Do you mean Neil?"

"Yeah..."

Chelsea grinned, "No wonder they're good friends!"

"I hope we can be good friends like them, too!" we said in unison, before we laughed together. Sometimes friendship could be formed in a moment, apparently.

We said goodbye to each other and I was just about to go back to the farm when someone called my name with a familiar voice. I turned back and found a black-haired young man I knew, Calvin Dresden.

"I'm just about to head to your farm to say hi." he said, "Long time no see..."

We ended up walking to the forest and catching up with each other's lives.

"How's farming?" he asked.

"Tougher than it seems, but it's fulfilling. It's just what I want."

"That's good."

"Who else are coming for the festival?" I asked.

"Gwen, Glen, Bob, and your parents." he replied, "Glen is competing, if I'm not wrong."

Glen apparently inherited her mother's love for horses. He was one of the best riders in the village and I wondered how he would perform tomorrow. We then reminisced about our childhood; the games we used to play, the fights we used to have, the small little adventures that led us to be scolded, the songs we sang together; mainly almost everything we could remember from those good old times. I loved to talk a bit longer with Cal, but I realised it was almost dinner time. Cal accompanied me back to the farm and with then we parted with a promise to have another chat some time later.

Finally, the long anticipated festival in Fall came: Horse Racing Festival. Gwen and I had trained our horses very hard for this day. Thor and Kazuki wouldn't be in the same group, though, since their age difference was quite far. Horse Racing Festival attracted many people, it seemed, since the inn was booked out since two days ago. Dunhill told us that the number of participants were more than he had expected, thanks to the recent rapid development of the village, and it pleased him.

I was just about to go for the quarantine area when I saw Neil walking towards the same direction. I approached him, "Hey."

"Oh, hey." He greeted back. These days he became rather friendlier, although he still didn't smile a lot. Oh well.

"You're competing, right?"

He nodded, "It's a good way to train my horse, too."

"Reine!"

I turned back and saw Mom waved her hand.

"She looks like you." Neil said, "Pink hair."

"Duh, that's my mom."

"Oh," he seemed to be surprised. "Well, see you later. Good luck for the race."

"You too, Neil."

I jogged towards Mom and Dad. She hugged me and kissed my cheeks as if I was still her little girl. I was a bit embarrassed, but I guessed I didn't really mind, so I hugged her back. Mom loved both of her daughter equally, and although she treated us rather differently because of our personalities and all, I could feel that she had no favouritism over any of us, which made me glad.

"Good luck, dear. Be careful, okay?"

"Okay, Mom."

"Who's that guy just now?" Dad asked rather coldly.

"Oh, that's Neil Forrester." I replied, "He's the animal trader."

"So young," Mom muttered. "How old is he?"

"This winter he'll turn twenty-three, if I remember correctly." I asked, "Why do you seem to be interested in him?"

"William is much more polite and courteous."

Sensing what Dad was implying, I immediately responded, "He's not my boyfriend, Dad."

Dad nodded, "I still don't really like him. Look at him, dressed like going to a rock concert with that silly purple coat."

"Okay, Dad, I get it." I said quickly, not wanting to go into a silly argument over useless things, especially with Dad. "Anyway, I have to go now. Enjoy the festival!"

"Good luck, girl." Dad said.

"Thanks!"

I ran towards the quarantine area. Thor and Kazuki had been brought away since yesterday and now we were going to the festival ground. Instead starting at twelve like most of festivals, Horse Racing Festival started at nine and it would be almost all-day long.

"I wonder who we will race against."

"Yeah." Gwen replied, "Good luck, Reine."

"You, too."

My race would be the first race, since I joined the youngest age group of 3 years. I led Thor out, feeling rather nervous that my legs were shaking. Thor seemed to be nervous as well. "It's okay, Thor. We will do our best. We don't have to win but we must give it our best shot!"

Thor neighed softly and I took it as an agreement.

With that, we rode on the racing lanes as Dunhill's voice reverberated through the festival grounds.

"Welcome to the 1st Echo Village Horse Racing Festival!"

All the horses entered the paddocks, waiting for the signal for the race to start. I wasn't so lucky to get the furthest lane in this category, lane 10. Well, I didn't expect Thor to win, he wasn't a racing horse from the beginning. Still, it was really frustrating to get the disadvantages of furthest lane.

The horn was blown and the paddocks were opened. I pulled Thor's rein to make him run.

"What an unexpected accident!" Dunhill announced, "Sakura has gotten out of control and was blocking other horses' lane! Now, the only horses moving forwards are Lightning ridden by Vaughn, Lasalle ridden by Chelsea, Rover ridden by Rod, and Thor ridden by Reine! Those who started on the outer lane sure are lucky this time!"

What? What just happened? I could not turn my head to see what happened behind, that would be dangerous, but I do realise that there were only four horses racing near me including Thor himself. Where was Neil? What happened to him? Was he caught up in the accident? I just hoped he was alright for the moment.

Thor could not match the other horses' speed. It was no wonder, they were all veteran in horse racing I guessed, but I didn't want to lose. I tried to make Thor speed up, to catch up the other three horses, but my effort was futile. He didn't want to obey my command or could not to be exact. The gap between Thor and the others were getting longer by seconds. Maybe this was Thor's limit. The race was going to end soon with the last 400 metres.

"What are you doing, Reine Kreiss?!"

A red horse suddenly took over my position from my left. That was... Neil?

"What an unexpected outcome! Valor who was caught up in the accident at the beginning of the race has made an amazing comeback!"

So that was Neil who shouted at me? I could see his determined look from here, but his posture was quite weird. Instead of holding on to the rein, he was holding and pushing his horse's neck. Oh, I got it now! I let go of the rein and positioned my hand on Thor's neck.

I pushed his neck as far as I could with my hand. Thor sprinted the moment I did that manoeuvre. How could I not think of this? Thor was only 3 years old and he wasn't trained to run like Kazuki and the other horses. It wasn't because he couldn't run faster, he just didn't have the habit and posture to do so. That's why I should mould his posture by forcing him to lower his neck.

We soon became side by side with Neil and his exhausted horse; the accident must had a big impact on his horse's stamina.

"Are you guys okay?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, trying my best so Neil could hear me. "Are you injured?!"

"Just focus on the race, dummy!"

We raced like this until the end of the race, too bad we could not catch up with the other three. However, I was very proud of Thor. He really did a good job on this race, especially considering this was his first race.

"We had the winner for the Beginner category! In the first place, Rover with Rod! In the second place, Lightning with Vaughn! And in the third place, Lasalle with Chelsea! Congratulations!"

"That was a good race, Thor!" I said as I stroke hugged him from his back. I realised that Neil was staring at me for a while after we crossed the finish line. What's his problem? I didn't do anything wrong. Well, I did follow his riding method, but that wasn't cheating.

"Are you out of your mind?" he asked sharply, "What if you fell down?"

Shoot, I felt nauseous again.

"Well, the same goes for you!" I defended myself.

"That's a different story!"

"What's different about it?!"

"Why—"

The speaker screeched loudly, making Neil's voice unclear although we stood near to each other. Dunhill's voice soon reverberated through the festival ground.

"The next round is the advanced category for 4 and 5 years old horses. The participants are : In lane number 1, Schneider with Allen Rosencrantz, in lane number 2, Kazuki with Gwen Kreiss, in lane number 3, Arthur Jr with William Regison, in lane number 4, Milliana with ... "

Did I hear it wrongly? Lane number one was... Allen?

Gwen

Allen? Why did he join the race? He didn't seem to be that kind of guy, at least that's what I thought.

The horn was blown, it was time to gather in the starting lane. I entered the specified lane, lane two, riding Kazuki. It felt very awkward. Allen was on my left in lane one, riding a dark brown stallion which I doubted was even his. His way of riding a horse was unsurprisingly very awkward; I could tell that he wasn't used to riding horse. On my right, in lane three, was Will and Arthur Jr. They seemed confident enough to win this race.

"Let's make this race a meaningful one," Will said, looking towards me.

I still didn't know how to face him and just nodded with a slight smile.

Dunhill announced that the race would start very soon.

Three...

Two...

One...

The horn had been blown and the paddocks were opened. This race was only 1200 metres long so I should race Kazuki from the start if we wanted to win. I pulled his rein the moment the paddocks were open and sprinted to the racing lane. We had a good start, but not the best. Two horses were in front of me, racing against each other. No horse but Kazuki could match their speed but I didn't want to make him tired now so I didn't try to take over them.

"The race has finally started! This time, two horses dominated the race! They were Milliana ridden by Glen and Hayata ridden by Kana! What a competition they had!" Dunhill announced and the crowds became so loud that I could not hear even the footsteps of the horses.

I took a glance behind me and there were two horses behind me, side by side. They were Schneider (wow, Allen wasn't that bad) and Arthur Jr, Allen and Will's horses. The race continued like this until we reach the last turn, the last four hundred metres of this race. Somehow, I just felt insecure. Surely, something was going on between the two guys behind me.

The moment I tried to turn, my leg was grazed by the fence. Shoot, I turned too fast. My mind was occupied with other things that I could not really concentrate on the race. Kazuki lost his momentum and went to the second lane. I lost my balance for a while, it's a good thing that I didn't fell off.

"Ooo... Gwen made a mistake on her last turn! Will it be the end for her and Kazuki? The leading horses haven't changed, Milliana and Hayata are still racing for the best position!"

Nice, I just created an opening for Allen. With Allen's position in the inner lane now, he could easily take this chance and raced his horse to get the best position. I was prepared to see Allen's horse taking over Kazuki, but what I saw was a white horse. Arthur Jr.? The white horse took the position swiftly and sprinted. Why was it him? I took a glance back, Allen was still there. Not moving on his position behind me, in the inner lane. This was weird. He could have sprinted and took the position, I knew his horse could do it. If not, he could make a move when Will was trying to get into the inner lane. Will would be disqualified for blocking another horse's lane if he did that and I believed Allen wasn't stupid enough to not know about the rule of horse racing while entering it.

Okay, I should get back to the race for now. Three horses were in front of us now. I didn't think that we could finish first, but at least he could still get a better position. It's time for last spurt.

"Go, Kazuki!" I shouted as I pulled his rein. Kazuki bent his head lower, neighed and sprinted as fast as he could.

The other horses had started their last spurt as well, but I believed that no horse here can beat Kazuki's speed when he sprinted. He was the offspring of the champion after all, he carried his father's talent and he was trained to run. He soon caught up and took back the position from Arthur Jr. Only two horses left in front and a hundred metres left for the race. We did our best, but we didn't manage to catch up with the two others and the race was over.

"In first place, Milliana with Glen! In second place, Hayata with Kana! In third place, Kazuki with Gwen! Congratulations all medallist!" Dunhill announced the winners proudly.

"Bronze huh...," I murmured, "At least we did our best, Kazuki," I said as I stroke his mane gently. I needed to bring Kazuki to the winner's circle (actually it's just the festival ground's stage because this wasn't a proper horse racing arena) so I jumped down.

That was the moment I realised something wrong with my right foot. It hurt and stung. Was it because I grazed the fence during the race? When I wanted to bent down to take off the racing boots, I saw Allen approaching me.

"Are you alright, Gwen?"

"Yeah?"

I answered intuitively. I didn't really understand why he asked something like that. Just when the boot was off that I realised why. My foot was bleeding profusely. Shoot, what did I do back then that my foot became like this? I tried to step with it but my reflex made it quickly stay away from the ground. It really hurt. Allen took a handkerchief from his pocket, squatted down and bound the bleeding part.

He then stood up again, grabbed my right hand and put it around his shoulder. What? What was he going to do?

"Let's go to Dr Trent now." he said as he lifted me off the ground.

Ignoring my protests and embarrassment, he walked to the first aid station where Dr Trent was talking to a woman I'd never seen before. They were so engrossed in their conversation that they didn't see us coming.

"...so, how are you and Pete?" he asked with his usual serious tone.

"We are expecting a child," the woman answered as she blushed. "Dr Klaus let me go home earlier now."

"Oh..." Dr Trent stared blankly at the ground. He looked so miserable.

"Doc..."

He turned around, "Yes, what can I do?"

"It seems that Kreiss' leg is injured."

"Okay, put her down here, I'll take a look at it."

"Do you need my help, Doc?"

"It's okay, Elli. I got this covered."

The young woman seemed not to fully believe Dr Trent's words. Who was she? I never saw her around.

Maybe she was someone from Dr Trent's previous town.

Dr Trent washed my injury with saline. While he was treating my injury, I looked at Allen, who had a genuinely worried look on his face, but there was also some sadness and anger in it. What was happening? Was he upset because he lost? Allen turned back and walked away without any words. Seeing that this was Allen, maybe I should leave him to himself now.

Reine

As soon as the Advanced Class Racing was over, I looked through the crowd for Allen. He finished in fifth place, just slightly after William after a heated competition. It wasn't bad, especially if he didn't have experience like Gwen or William. I found him talking to William, again with the serious face. As I got nearer to them, I got to hear their conversation.

"I accept my defeat."

"So... nowhere near her?" William asked.

Her? The only 'her' I could think of, if it was concerning both of them, was my sister.

"As agreed."

Just as Allen finished his words, he saw me, "Reine?"

"What are you guys up to?"

Neither of them answered. William tapped Allen's shoulder and said, "I'll see you later."

Allen stood still at his place, unmoved. I stepped forward and asked him in a low voice, articulating each and every word slowly, "What are you guys planning to do with my sister?"

"Nothing," he replied evasively.

"You were talking about her, right?"

"This is none of your business."

"This is the second time I saw you talking to William with a grim face." I admitted, "And if both are concerning my sister..."

"We made a bet." Allen interjected, "Whoever finishes faster in the horse race would get the right to... her."

What?!

I tightened my fist and launched it at him before I decided not to; I wasn't the same person that I used to be. My fist stopped right before I really punched him, "Why did you stop? I know I've done something terrible, and I'm not proud of it."

"Why, Allen? You are the last person I'd expect to do something like this." I asked, "What do you think Gwen is? Why didn't you guys consider her feelings?"

"If she gets back with that guy, he will take her away." he replied, "and there's nothing stopping him."

I pulled my hand back. Well, I couldn't punch him if that was the reason. What he had done was still foolish beyond recognition, though, I guessed the thoughts that counted.

"Has she ever told you about him?"

"Sort of."

"I don't know whether you know why they broke up, even I didn't know why in the first place, but I'm sure Gwen knows what to do." I told him, "Have a little faith in her."

"Are you going to tell her?"

I shook my head, "I'm not interfering with my sister's private life unless it's really necessary." I replied, "Moreover, maybe it'd be better for her never to know this."

I turned my back and started to walk away.

"Hey, thanks, Reine." I heard him saying. Ugh, why I ended up being on his side? Well, I wasn't inclined to take on William's or even Gwen's, actually. I just did what I considered as the best way. And I hoped this was indeed the best way.

"Yeah..." I murmured.

Cal and I decided to take a walk to the mountain area. We had another long, fun chat near the Goddess' Pond before he asked, "Are you happy here?"

"Yes, of course." I immediately replied, "I wouldn't stay if I'm not, would I?"

"Yes, you've always been that way, pursuing happiness." Cal smiled gently, "So full of life and passion. Not to mention power."

"And I guess I displayed a good amount of it when I punched you."

He laughed, "Yeah, since then I know messing around with you, or your sister for that matter, isn't a good idea."

This time, I laughed. I still could recall the boy version of Cal Dresden. With his tough disposition and unbelievable guts, he was intimidating, but somehow he had grown into a good-natured young man and a closer resemblance to his father. I didn't know why, how, and when it happened, but I knew for sure both were Calvin Dresden I knew.

"They say people change, and you change a lot. But, I don't think I change much over the years myself."

"You don't," he agreed, "You're still so frank, stubborn, fiery, and reckless."

"Well, thanks," I replied sarcastically.

"But I guess that's why it's so easy to love you."

"Huh?"

Cal reached for his pocket and took out a Blue Feather.

Shoot, that escalated quickly.

Mom once told me Blue Feather used to represent true love, and it was the custom for a man to present his lover with a Blue Feather when proposing to her, as a way of asking her to spend the rest of her live with him. Blue Feather, plucked from a blue bird, was commonly found in mountain areas and it was rather easy to find. However, as time went by, blue bird became a less common animal that people started to abandon the custom but some, especially those in Leaf Valley and Harmonica which was believed to be the habitat of blue bird, although it was very challenging to obtain one. Hence, Blue Feather was now known as a symbol of rare, true, and persevered love. I had always thought that a proposal with Blue Feather-despite my disliking of the colour-would be very sweet and romantic.

"Cal... this is a bad joke..."

My heart rushed and I could not think of any appropriate word for him. I knew for sure Calvin Dresden was a reliable person through the years that we had spent together. He would be a dependable and wonderful husband and father; but... marrying him? Did I love him the way he loved me?

"When you left, I cursed myself for never telling you how I felt. I didn't know what to do until the news of the racing reached Leaf Valley. I thought it would be a perfect, since I have a reason to travel here and you love horse racing." He continued, "I may not have been expressing my feelings as well as you would expect me to, but I am sure I love you as much as a man can love a woman. If you want me to move here, I will do it for you."

He knelt down. This was getting even and even more awkward. Someone, help me.

"Reine Kreiss, will you spend the rest of our lives together?"

"Cal, are you serious?"

"Do I look like kidding to you?"

Frankly, no. I could feel every ounce of his seriousness in the air. I took a deep breath and look at him squarely.

"Since you are serious, I will not joke around as well." I told him, "Cal, I can't marry you."

"Ah..."

He was strangely calm about this, although I could see he was crushed.

"I don't love you the way you love me, and I think it will be very unfair and cruel of me if I marry you with that kind of imbalance. I can't return your love equally, and I wouldn't like that."

"I don't mind that."

"But I do, Cal." I said, "Because I believe, somewhere, the Goddess has created someone who deserves your Blue Feather; someone who can love you just as much as you love her. And that person is not me, Cal."

He hung his head down as if hiding away his tears, and at that instant I felt sorry for him, but there was no regret in me doing this.

"I may lose a close friend of mine after this is over, but I guess it's worth it, because I want you to find your happiness, your real happiness, even though I'm not part of it."

He finally stood up, "Thanks for not giving me false hope."

He put away his Blue Feather and smiled bitterly, "But like I told you before, that's what makes you so lovable."

I offered him a friendly hug and he hugged me back just the way we used to do it, "Cal, I'm touched by your proposal, really. I'm so sorry I can't give you what you want."

"You do, Reine." he replied as he let me go. "I have wanted an honest reply and that's what exactly you gave me."

"Are we still friends?"

He laughed, "Of course, what else could we be since you've rejected me?" He then took a breath and said, "We'll always be friends, Reine."

"Thank Goddess..." I sighed in relief.

"Actually I thought you would refuse me because you're already attached."

"Huh? Attached?"

"Yeah, to the blond guy who always wears dark purple long coat."

"Are you referring to Neil?" I asked, much surprised.

"Yup." he replied, "I thought you guys were an item. Are you?"

"Hell, no." I quickly replied, "We're just friends."

"But you like him?"

I remembered Gwen asked me the same question way back when we were new here, and I also remembered that time I could reply quickly with ease. I wondered why I couldn't do the same now. Was it because of Cal's earlier proposal that I was reluctant to talk about my love life to him? But what Neil had to do with my love life?

Okay, back to Cal's question: did I like Neil? I was obviously okay with him and he was obviously good-looking and not that bad. His cold attitude could pose a problem, but I had with me some rare moments I could see his vulnerable smile. I knew he had much more kindness than he let on. Did I like him? In what way? Ugh, this was complicated.

"I don't know." I told him, "I honestly don't know."

* * *

With the twins' love life getting more complicated, how thing would unravel between them?

Stay tuned to find out!

Thanks for reading this chapter! Please drop a review so we would know how you've enjoyed the story so far! ^^

Regards,

Gwen and Reine Kreiss


End file.
